A slow building novel which moves back and forth between Peri's childhood in Istanbul in the 1980s and 90s, Oxford in 2001 where she is a student and 2016 Istanbul where she is a wealthy housewife and mother. After a childhood in a home divided by religion, Peri lives confused and so desperate to be normal that she ends up afraid. Peri's constant conflict, having to choose between faith and doubt, and that of Turkey's current political situation is very well done.

A deftly written novel about how one incident can change the trajectory of your life and make you see people, circumstances and culture from an entirely different perspective.

This book is lovely - I loved seeing Peri learn and grow throughout her, and how different choices made influence her growth and lead her to and from Istanbul. The university segments reminded me a bit of Eugenides "The Marriage Plot" in that Shafek allows the reader to participate in dialogue and thinking about big ideas, in this case surrounding religion and god, feminism and more. Engrossing.
I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Another great book from Shafak, Three Daughters of Eve is a phenomenal study of memory, and the way our lives shape what we remember (and vice versa). Though religion--specifically Islam--features heavily in this book, it speaks to a larger shared struggle between man and the larger forces that govern our world.

An interesting exploration of religion vs. secularism in both east and west - moving from Istanbul to Oxford and back again. While the pacing of the novel was a bit unsteady, and I would have preferred more emphasis on the Oxford setting, I enjoyed Shafak's writing overall, as always.

I just couldn't get into this story. The blurb intrigued me but the pace of the story was too slow and didn't grab me.

I really did enjoy this book! The characters were lovely, the content was well orchestrated including building suspense but it was a little slow to start.

Beautifully written and totally engrossing. Lovely book with incredible themes and descriptions. I felt totally transported and loved reading this story.

I tried and tried and tried with this one; in the end I could not connect with the writing or narrative(s) AT ALL. I found it dull and dire and a bit up its own nose; in fairness, these could be laid at the feet of the translation, but I doubt it. No, thank you.

Elif Shafak is a number one bestselling novelist in her native Turkey, and her work has been translated and celebrated around the world. She writes in both Turkish and English; my understanding is that this novel was written in English (rather than translated). Over the years, Shafak has been nominated/longlisted for a number of prestigious awards including the Women’s Prize for Fiction (twice), the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (twice) and the Walter Scott Historical Novel Prize.

This is the first of Shafak’s work that I’ve read but I will definitely put some of her backlist on my TBR list as her writing is lovely. That said, I didn’t really love this book as I had some difficulty remaining engaged with the story and even the characters.

This was an interesting book and certainly an introduction to a world, and certain topics and perspectives, I am not particularly familiar with … one of the true benefits to someone like me of reading fiction by non-Anglo authors. However, thought this isn’t always the case, I found the shifting perspectives and timelines in this book to be somewhat disjointed and while her writing is commendable I had difficultly getting drawn in to the story.

But thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy and allowing for my honest review.

t all begins with a stolen knockoff Birkin bag in Elif Shafak’s new novel, Three Daughters of Eve. Nazperi Nalbantoglu, or Peri to her friends, is enduring both the nightmarish bumper-to-bumper traffic in a crowded Istanbul street and the short-tempered comments of her teenage daughter Deniz.

Trying to make her way to an upscale dinner party held by a wealthy businessman and where her husband Adnan is waiting for her, Peri thinks fleetingly about life in Istanbul, about her duties as a wife and mother, and how different she had envisioned herself so many years ago.

Amid her reverie and the increasing traffic, Peri doesn’t see the tramp reaching in to steal her handbag from the backseat until it’s too late. But there is something in that bag that Peri treasures, a faded Polaroid of herself, two other girls and a man taken decades earlier in Oxford. Brushing aside her daughter’s protests, Peri gives chase to the tramp in an absolute refusal to allow that photo to be lost forever.

Shafak’s narrative fluctuates between Peri’s childhood, her college years at Oxford and the present, both in the incident with the tramp and then later, at the dinner party. What is revealed about Peri is that she is a true dichotomy. It’s very difficult to figure her out. Her actions oscillate between very meek to sometimes surprisingly aggressive. The truly absorbing part of the novel are the many debates sparked between the characters about religion, country, faith, God, love and feminism. In addition, Peri’s education at Oxford coincides with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 which makes the references to Islam and religion all the more relevant.

If this seems a little bit much to take on, it perhaps might be in some parts. The dialogues are by no means fluid in the sense that could be described as quick and to-the-point conversations. In fact, there is more third-person narrative than dialogue, which of course slows down the action and makes the novel seem terribly slow at times. But this is without a doubt a part of Shafak’s style, repeated in her some of her previous novels, The Forty Rules of Love, The Architect’s Apprentice and The Bastard of Istanbul.

As Peri reveals through flashbacks her years at Oxford, her budding friendship with two very different women and her growing admiration for Professor Azur, a controversial academic of divinity at Oxford whose course is much coveted and many times frowned upon by other scholars. This is when the novel truly begins, the story taking a deep turn into controversial themes like Islam and feminism, topics that Peri could never explore at leisure in Turkey with her deeply religious mother and proclaimed secular father.

The rather ambiguous point is Peri’s relationship with her husband. We can discern that it was perhaps a marriage borne out of convenience going by Peri’s own words that what she feels for Adnan is a deep gratitude, but that “gratitude is not love.” The nature of their union is not explored sufficiently to draw a conclusion, but in later events we can somewhat see that Peri is genuinely fond of her husband and is generally content by his side, if only a bit unsatisfied. But this has more to do with Peri than it does with Adnan.

Shafak saves the best for last, a secret that explains why Peri left Oxford with an unfinished degree. At the businessman’s dinner party, Peri is forced to remember everything she had thought forgotten when she is taunted by the wife of another guest to speak of her Oxford years and about Professor Azur. Later, when a psychic draws three figures on a napkin, Peri makes the choice of setting the past to right, knowing that this is the only way to finally forgive herself and the one other person she holds responsible for the scandal that broke them, and a terrorist attack is what finally seems to seal all the events together.

Poetry isn’t as explored in this novel as it is in some of Shafak’s earlier works. However it gives a wide glimpse into Eastern culture in the chapters pertaining to Peri’s childhood. Arranged marriages, family honor, the shaming of women and the brutal treatment of political prisoners are all explored in Three Daughters of Eve. Readers certainly receive a broad view of all the facets of Turkish society and its people.

Three Daughters of Eve is not a comfortable or cozy read. The narrative is slow and dialogues at times can be repetitive, heavy, and sometimes pretentious in their desire to seem overly intellectual. But it makes a definitely profound observation on the meaning of religion and how it reaches into so many aspects of life, including love.

Shafak’s descriptions of Istanbul and of Turkey in general are so vivid and alive that the reader can almost hear the honking of the horns of bottleneck traffic and the smells of rich food served at the businessman’s party, or the acrid smell of fear and hate emanated by the tramp that steals Peri’s purse. It is a novel of current events that link East and West, and this alone makes this worth reading.

This book is going to stay with me for a long time. The author’s descriptions about the inner struggle of the main character, Peri, was excellently done. I could recognize parts of me in her plight, and this made the book more interesting to me.

Overall, a great read! I would definetely read other titles by this author.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher fir providing me with a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

Elif Shafak is a master of telling the varied experiences of women from her native Turkey. Her novels are an education in what it means to be a modern woman and irresistibly readable.

For once, a synopsis actually does a fair job of describing a book! Check out the synopsis on Goodreads. If that summary doesn’t intrigue you, this book probably isn’t for you.

Now here is one of the many reasons this book is for me. It is my opinion (grain of salt and put on your big girl panties y’all), and it has also been my experience (limited though it may be), that many people have strong opinions about cultures and countries of which they have no direct experience or proper education, and for us Westerners, this is particularly true of the Eastern World.

Those who dabble in travel go to super comfortable English-speaking countries like Australia, England, Ireland and Scotland. Those who are a little more adventurous might visit parts of Europe. I love to travel, and I’ve gone no further south than Honduras. In my 20’s, Egypt was very high on my list, but then it became less stable, and as a young woman who traveled alone (gasp!), I put it off (which I have always regretted).
Although it seems like there has always been “trouble” in the Middle East, I’ve felt the focus on those countries, and a really negative focus at that, has increased tremendously in recent years (it is also quite possible I’ve just become more aware). Regardless, it bothers me. It eats at me, if I’m being honest. This demonization. And I feel strongly that a lot of those feelings come from a lack of understanding.

While I don’t share those feelings, I also don’t know much about the Middle East or the multitude of cultures and religions from that region. And I want to change that. For me, the easiest gateway is through fiction created by people of that culture, religion, region, etc., so long as the fiction is centered in that world. It brings me tidbits of truth and knowledge, a reflection on the author’s personal experience, and makes me want to read more non-fiction on the subject. So, I’m trying to read more stories about authors outside of Europe and North America, stories that are also focused on those regions and the people living in them. One of the greatest powers books have is bridge building and I want to talk as cross as many of those bridges as I can.

Being Peri cannot be easy. A mother who is a devout Muslim and a father who is at best agnostic, and rather antagonistic towards those who place absolute faith in, well, anything that can’t be seen. Turkey is changing, but it is happening slowly. Peri is stuck in the middle, unsure of everything, unwilling to accept there is nothing but what she sees with her own eyes, but also not feeling the calling or strength of conviction that her mother does. Fortunately for her, her father wants her to have an education, to make her own choices about her life, and so she gets the opportunity to attend Oxford. It is there that she meets Professor Azur (a believer who questions all!), Shirin (an Iranian girl raised in London who is fiercely independent and seems to resent all things Muslim, both religion and culture), and Mona (Egyptian-American who wears a headscarf and is a devout believer like Peri’s mother). Oxford, and these people, will change her life in ways she never would have imagined.

While the voice of this book is Peri’s, through the eyes of these three girls, we see different perspectives and experiences of being a woman in, or from, the Middle East, as well as being, or growing up in, a Muslim household. And while I loved Peri (I very much identified with her feelings about faith and culture and finding her place), what I appreciated most was the reminder that there is much diversity of thought and experience within the Middle Eastern world, and those who are of Middle Eastern descent but have relocated to other countries. How blending in without sacrificing your culture can be painful and confusing and create division within families. And that things are changing all over the world, no matter what we think or what the media tells us.
There were times when I found Peri rather frustrating, but then I’d remind myself of her age and her circumstances, and I’d realize that I was so frustrated partially because she reminds me in many ways of myself. Clearly our backgrounds are very different, but still I found we had so much in common. Which is the beauty of fiction and why it is so important to read books by and about people different from ourselves.

A book I’ll read again at some point, knowing full well I’ll get even more out of it with every read.

This novel is just so intelligent and timely. It follows an Istanbul native named Peri, both in past and present. Her father is a secularist, her mother a devout Muslim. Peri herself is confused and throughout her life she struggles with her identity and relationship with God. A devoted student, she enrols in Oxford as a young woman where she takes a philosophy course focused on the concept of God. It is run by a charming professor who is known for testing his students. The enigmatic Professor Azur will continue to haunt Peri for years, even as she goes about her life as a wife/mother running in Istanbul's modern bourgeois circles. If you are interested in any of the following themes: class, cultural identity, religion, liberal vs. conservative values, feminism, the changing Middle East...this book is definitely worth a look!

This book was just not my cup of tea and I was not able to finish it. Thank you for this opportunity, though!

This has been sitting in my queue for quite a while now. If only I had known how much I would love it! Ah! I wish I had picked it up months sooner. One of my favorites this year for sure. Full review to follow @litpicks.wordpress.com Thank you, Netgalley!

Great story. The beginning really grabs you to find out more about the main character and her life.

This book was not at all what I expected. For one thing, I kept waiting for someone named Eve and her three daughters! ha! It was soon obvious, though, that the three daughters must refer to Peri, Mona and Shirin even though the characters of Mona and Shirin were very superficially drawn. We never really learned much about them. The book revolved around Peri - - from her childhood to her time at Oxford - and finally to her adult life as a middle-aged, wealthy woman married with children.

The skipping back and forth in timelines was irritating at times but the author kept the tension up as the story progressed to what seemed would be the logical outcome. Most of the book, however, was filled with philosophy and discussions of Muslims and Turkey and conflicts in the world. It was interesting and topical but somewhat tedious reading at times.

The ending, for me, didn't live up to the built-up suspense; but it was an interesting book with much to think about.

Riveting and truly fascinating. My first Shafak read, too. It's hard to put this one in a single box, but I can assure you that you will enjoy Shafak's writing. Often, the main themes of the book- politics, religion- are overbearing and truly repetitive, but you'll be fine if you skip a few pages here and there (unless of course you're into philosophical discussions of that sort).

My favorite things about Three Daughters are the characters and the writing. I also found the plot to be engaging. Peri is a rather interesting character and the novel does feel like her coming of age story more than it seems to be about both her other friends. Istanbul is depicted so vividly and Peri's parents are probably two of the most alive fictional characters I've encountered.

In summary, while I enjoyed this read immensely, I also recognize that it isn't for everyone and parts of the novel are annoyingly preachy; more Shafak's meditations on religion than story. Still, an unforgettable read devoured in less than ten hours.