Elif Shafak

*As mentioned on BBC's Desert Island Discs* 'A fascinating exploration of faith and friendship, rich and poor, and the devastating clash of tradition and modernity' Independent Set across Istanbul and Oxford, from the 1980s to the present day, Three Daughters of Eve is a sweeping tale of faith and friendship, tradition and modernity, love and an unexpected betrayal. Peri, a wealthy Turkish housewife, is on her way to a dinner party at a seaside mansion in Istanbul when a beggar snatches her handbag. As she wrestles to get it back, a photograph falls to the ground - an old polaroid of three young women and their university professor. A relic from a past - and a love - Peri had tried desperately to forget. The photograph takes Peri back to Oxford University, as an eighteen year old sent abroad for the first time. To her dazzling, rebellious Professor and his life-changing course on God. To her home with her two best friends, Shirin and Mona, and their arguments about Islam and femininity. And finally, to the scandal that tore them all apart.

Three Daughters of Eve

"Set across Istanbul and Oxford, from the 1980's to the present day,Three Daughters of Eveis a sweeping tale of faith and friendship, tradition and modernity, love and an unexpected betrayal. Peri, a wealthy Turkish housewife and mother, is on her way to a dinner party at a seaside mansion in Istanbul when a beggar snatches her handbag. As she wrestles to get it back, a photograph falls to the ground - an old polaroid of three young women and their university professor. A relic from a past - and a love Peri had tried desperately to forget. The photograph takes Peri back to Oxford University, as nineteen year old sent abroad for the first time. To her dazzling, rebellious Professor and his life-changing course on God. To the house she shareswith her two best friends, Shirin and Mona, and their arguments about identity, Islam and feminism. And finally, to the scandal that tore them all apart. Shirin, Peri and Mona, they were the most unlikely of friends. They were the Sinner, the Believer and the Confused."

Nada Ghazi

"I wept, because for years
He did not enter my arms,
The one night I was told a secret,
Perhaps the name you called God
Is not really His,
Maybe it is just an alias."

-
Strange how Elif Shafak could make a divine connection between you and her characters..since the first page of this novel I felt personally attacked, in a smooth way. And since that time and till now I keep wondering..Aren't we all Peri? The confused?

Shrouk Shafie

كعادة إليف شافاق تجذبنا إلى روايتها منذ الصفحة الأولى :)) ناقشت أحد القضايا الهامة في عصرنا الحالي، تنتقل في سهولة من عصر إلى عصر ومن زمن إلى زمن آخر بأحداث مترابطة ومتشابكة بتشويق لطيف. ربما تكون هذه إحدى رواياتها المفضلة لدي حتى الآن :))

Saima A

This was so good.


I'm not sure I fully grasped the ending, I was hoping for a little bit more

Anabel

This was one of the most beautiful reads in the longest while. Recommended by someone I love and respect a lot, it had added value in the beginning, however it didn't really need it.
A lovely and fresh female narrative that offers various aspects on love, God and forgiveness, spoken trough the eyes of someone who has been deprived of all. Sometimes it feels like love, God and forgiveness were fed to her on a silver spoon, yet she did not want any of it. The twist this book holds was immaculate and entirely unexpected. 

It is not a light read. However, serious topics are presented with a light-hearted spirit and with a spice of humour. I loved this. I ate trough it in 3 days. It took me on the most amazing journey. I am looking forward to reading more of this amazing woman's work! I would recommend this to anyone anytime - man, woman, muslim, atheist ... This book really teaches us that it does not matter as we are all souls undermeath the skin.

Safiya 

I am a little annoyed to be hovering above two parallel stories, it's a bit dizzying to me. And I think that on the overall there is more to this than a mere novel. Yet, it lacks some je ne sais quoi, I always loved how Elif would compose her stories based on quotes, specifically from Eastern productions.
Confusion and ambiguity were displayed all along, and some of it was about faith and belief:


  "Certainty was to curiosity what the sun was to the wings of Icarus."


My best paragraphs laid somewhere in between the ordinary life depiction, they were mostly part of the Professor's lectures :


  "‘The seminar on God is a meeting of curious minds. We come from all sorts of backgrounds but we have one thing in common. The spirit of inquiry! It is a programme that requires a lot of reading and research. I don’t care whether you’re a believer or not. Amongst my students, there is only one sin: laziness.’"



  "Here’s a question: can you create a marvellous science of your own to study God?’ ‘How do we do that?’ said Mona. ‘Be polymaths,’ Azur replied. ‘Knit together different disciplines, synthesize, don’t just focus on “religion”. In fact, stay away from religion, it only divides and muddles. Go to mathematics, physics, music, painting, poetry, art, architecture … Approach God through unlikely channels.’"


 I, however, do not find the baby in the mist, just like the thumbnellas in black milk, charming, it just was a mauvais goût thing, although maybe it is the focal point that the plot revolved around... It just didn't sound right... Sonne faux ! 
Yet again was happy to follow the lectures in the book myself, if only it was pushed further!


  ‘Let this guy speak. Ideas must be challenged with ideas. Books with better books. However stupid they might be, you can’t shut down people’s voices. Banning speakers is no way to go.’


Bonus (hint to our lost childhood memories):


  "Falaka, the beating of the soles of feet, was, for the most part, replaced by suspension by the arms for hours – a cleaner method that left fewer marks."

Three Daughters of Eve

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