Ayse Kazanci is the illegitimate daughter of Zeliha, and she’s raised by a collective of aunts and grandmothers in Istanbul. Her aunts and mother are all very different, but wonderful. Now Ayse is 19 and she’s a very confident young woman who loves listening to Johnny Cash and spends most of her time politics with a group of older, cynical outcasts in the cafe Kundera.
Armanoush “Amy” Tchakhmakhchian, an American Armenian young woman of 19 bouncing between her American mother Rose and Turkish stepfather Mustafa Kazanci’s home in Arizona and her Armenian father Barsham and his large family in San Francisco. Armanoush is trying to learn more about her Armenian heritage, and spends a lot of time online, in a virtual cafe for Armenians.
Armanoush decided to visit her stepfather’s family in Istanbul so she can research her family history.
Wow! What an incredible book. It addresses the Armenian genocide, and the current Turkish stance on it never having happened. The characters are likeable, the storyline believable and the execution is sublime. Elif Shafak is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors!
Read for the ShelfReflection Reading Challenge 2024.
Prompt 22: Two books with similar titles.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
