The Bastard of Istanbul

Longlisted for the 2008 Orange Fiction Prize

A breath-taking novel about a violent secret that threatens the peace of two interwoven families - now a Penguin Essential.

One rainy afternoon in Istanbul, a nineteen year old, unmarried woman walks into a doctor's surgery. 'I need to have an abortion,' she announces.

Twenty years later, Asya Kazanci lives with her extended family in Istanbul. All the Kazanci men die in their early forties, victims of the mysterious family curse, so it is a house of women. Among them are Asya's beautiful, rebellious mother, her clairvoyant aunt, and their hopelessly hypochondriac sister. Into the midst for this madhouse comes Asya's feisty American cousin, and she's bringing long-hidden family secrets connected with Turkey's turbulent past in her wake . . .

About the Author

Elif Shafak is an award-winning novelist and the most widely read female writer in Turkey. She is known as a women's rights, minority rights and LGBT rights advocate as well as an inspirational public intellectual and speaker. She writes in both Turkish and English, and has published 16 books, 10 of which are novels. Her books have been published in 48 languages. Shafak is a TED Global speaker, a member of Weforum Global Agenda Council on Creative Economy in Davos and a founding member of ECFR (European Council on Foreign Relations). She has been awarded the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2010 by the French government. She has been featured in and contributes to major newspapers and periodicals around the world, including the Financial Times, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Der Spiegel and La Repubblica.

Shafak holds a degree in International Relations, a masters' degree in Gender and Women's Studies and a PhD in Political Science and Political Philosophy. She has taught at various universities in Turkey, the UK and the USA, and is the 2018 Weidenfeld Visiting Professor in Comparative European Literature at Oxford.