A brilliant story told from multiple POVs. The descriptive writing was brilliant. It is a slow burn.
Enjoyed this book

Beautiful writing, a story told through 4 perspectives so it took me a little bit of time to get into, but lovely scenery depicted so well and a great premise too

I do not think I was the targeted audience for this. The four perspectives did not seem distinct voices at times which made following the story slightly confusing. Cannot deny the writing was beautiful though. Maybe too purple for me.

A beautifully described exploration of one family’s history through the perspective of four main characters. As the family begin to gather for the celebration of the matriarch Shirin Saka’s 100th birthday, Celine’s father suddenly disappears. Recollections of the previous night with her Aunt Nur and journalist friend Burak reveal Celine’s true feelings for Burak. Evocative descriptions of the island, places and stories from the past and details of each characters’ lives are very slowly unfolded. Family secrets are finally revealed as enlightenment to the generations of trauma and struggles. Evocatively described and gently paced.

Thank you Netgalley and Head of Zeus.

I absolutely loved this book! The premise immediately hooked my interest and it was filled with twisty characters and such intense plot!

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

I liked reading this book and the family dynamics between the characters. It was nice to switch between the different points of view.

At The Breakfast Table is an intricate and compelling story weaving between the modern day and the past as the story unfolds.

One of the things I loved about this book was the way it pulled me into the setting.

I will say that it takes a little time to get into this book, as we're following a few different perspectives, and there are a lot of people to remember and sometimes, as happens for me with a lot of multiple perspective novels, I found myself less interested in some viewpoints than others.

Overall, though, I enjoyed this novel.

I was very excited to read this title after enjoying Defne Suman's previous book, The Silence of Scheherazade. Suman's writing is just as beautiful and evocative in this book, especially in illustrating the setting. She creates rich and interesting characters, and this story is told from the varied perspectives of four characters; Nur, Celine, Burak, and Sadik.

I enjoyed the slim chapters that comprised the book, it made for a very enjoyable reading experience. The earlier sections helped us get to know the characters, and the middle and end of the book helped to weave their threads together. The family dynamics are complex and interesting, and Shirin makes for a wonderful, eccentric matriarch.

At The Breakfast Table by Defne Suman

I had thought I would really enjoy this one as I love books set in different counties & about different cultures to my own but unfortunately I found this book a little too slow paced and overly detailed for my liking. I also never really got to know the characters well enough and therefore wasn’t invested in the story. I’m not sure if there was something lost in translation or maybe it just wasn’t for me. I’m sorry that I can’t be more positive.
Thank you to NetGalley, Head of Zeus/Apollo Publishing and to the author for giving me the opportunity to read and review this title.

This is quite an understated book. I didn’t realise what I felt about this story until I got to the end and realised how beautifully written it was. The way the story is told is very reflective and it weaves perfectly between different narratives and timelines.

I don’t know a lot about Turkey, so I jumped at the chance to read this book that delves into Turkish history and the heart of it’s people. Set in 2017, Buyukada, Turkey as a family gather to celebrate 100th birthday of the famous artist Shirin Saka. They are expecting reminiscences that are joyful and everyone looking back on a long and succesful artistic career, on family memories spanning almost a century. Some members of the family would like to take the opportunity to delve into family history. However, for Shirin, the past is a place she has been happy to leave behind. In fact she has concealed some of her experiences even from her closest family. In particular her children and great-grandchildren have no idea what those experiences are, despite being aware of it’s psychological consequences. Some want Shirin to open up and heal. Others want answers, perhaps to find answers for their own struggles. In an attempt to persuade her into telling her full story, one of her grandchildren invite an investigative journalist called Burak, to celebrate her achievements but in the hope of helping her too. Burak has his own reasons for being there - he was once the lover of Shirin’s granddaughter. I wondered if the younger members of the family truly understood the well of pain that Shirin has kept from them? Unable to express her pain any other way, Shirin begins to paint her story. Using the dining room wall she reveals a history that’s been kept from her family, but also from the public’s consciousness, an episode from the last days of the Ottoman Empire.

As a believer in the healing power of many different art forms, including writing, I was very interested in how her family’s plan would work out. We don’t always know how people will react to opening up in this way, it’s why trained therapists like me are taught to create a safe space for people to talk and reveal their secrets. Even the client has no idea how they will react, so Shirin’s family are playing with something they don’t understand. I couldn’t understand why they would think their grandmother would want to remember on her birthday, let alone divulge her history to Buruk. Surely therapy would have been more appropriate first? To tell her history, the author splits the historical portions of the narrative into four different narrators, each a member of the Shirin’s family group. This gives us a wide angle lens on the past. I loved the atmosphere created and the way the author didn’t exoticise Turkey. She still showed us a place of vibrancy and colour, but this wasn’t a tourist’s view. It was the Turkey of the people who work and live there. I felt there could have been more balance between the past and the present, because I was interested in Shirin’s recovery from these memories being dragged up, especially at such an emotional time. As it was, the book felt off balance, more heavily weighted in the past and from four different perspectives rather than just Shirin’s.

The four narrators did work in terms of showing the same events from different perspectives. There were times when one character’s view of the facts was so far from the truth it had an emotional effect on me, but that’s an emotionally intelligent author at work. The author wants us to feel that dissonance so we understand the painful consequences of that misunderstanding. I’m a big believer in the effects of generational trauma and we see that here, despite Shirin thinking she’s shielded her children and grandchildren from these events, they are still deeply affected by her trauma. They are traumatised in turn, without ever knowing the story. I could imagine though, the relief of understanding why a parent has behaved a certain way, especially if it caused you pain. Despite me wishing I could have spent more time with them, we do see enough to know that despite the stress fractures in this family, they still love each other. Their playfulness and sibling banter was realistic and touching. The dynamics of their interactions were so deeply rooted in the past, but we’re the only ones who can see it with our 360 degree view. This was a fascinating look at a family’s history and how their intertwined lives spiral out from one single event so long ago.

I quite enjoyed this book but found it slow to get into.
The book is told from 4 different characters all with their own unique take on things that happened or are happening. Their style in parts was so different though I found it effected the story's flow, also it jumps around in time quite often and I had to concentrate to keep up with where we were and what was being told about.
The setting was wonderfully described and the characters all interesting although I didn't particular like some of them.
Slow to start and took me a while to 'get a handle on things' but an interesting story with a good ending

A family saga/drama exploring modern Turkish history and culture. I wanted to connect with this, but really struggled. The characters were all flat and poorly developed.

Hidden secrets come to light at a birthday party when a journalist is brought along to ask Sirin Saka a famous artist about her life. I enjoyed this novel and how the story was told from multiple perspectives. A an interesting and enthralling read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review

Loved it!

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read this book in exchange for my review.

At the Breakfast Table is the story of the hidden past of Shirin Saka, told through the eyes of her family, a journalist friend and her loyal servant / companion. I love how slowly Defne Suman builds the story, and as the story builds you become involved in the lives and dramas that are playing out in the present.

Beautifully written, an immersive read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read At the Breakfast Table.

Read if you like emotional, slow paced stories about family secrets, trauma, with multiple point if views.

Set in modern day Turkey, At The Breakfast Table follows a family as they uncover the unknown past of their matriarch, and other well kept family secrets.

Famous artist Shirin Saka is turning 100, her family has gathered to celebrate, joined by Burak, family friend and journalist, who will interview Shirin about her long and succesful life.

The plot slowly unfolds as we piece together everyone's backstory and emotionally charged relationships to one another.
Told from four different perspectives, and very distinct voices, we see how easy it is to misinterpret events and how differently things can be perceived.

We explore family relationships, love turned into complete devotion, and I particularly enjoyed how Suman delves into the concept of intergenerational trauma and some of Turkey's troubled history. The food and landscape descriptions were lovely too.

I loved reading about Shirin Saka's past, shared with Sadik Usta, one of the narrators and Shirin's devoted lifelong servant. His level of servitude and devotion was sometimes frustrating, but I'm sure very accurate for his time.

It was however really slow paced, which wasn't helped by the four way narration. Sprinkled with lots of memories, it was sometimes difficult to dissociate past from present. Celine, another narrator and Shirin's great-granddaughter was also very immature which I found rather annoying.

An emotional background with an interesting premise and cultural background, well written characters, but unfortunately the narration made it hard for me to fully enjoy.

⚠️TW: suicide, police brutality, death

Thanks to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for the digital copy.

I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Head of Zeus/Apollo Publishing, and the author Defne Suman.
I know this is a translation so something may have been lost in the process but I would have to give it 2 stars for the first three quarters. It was so slow moving, dragging along, I had to force myself to read it and felt no desire to return to it. Unlikeable characters and lots of mindless detail.
However, the book did redeem itself with the denouement and final quarter which picked up speed considerably and was more enjoyable with an interesting final reveal. Can only give 3 stars as a result of the overall experience.

The short chapters made this book so wonderful! I loved being able to rip right through them and still feel like I was deeply invested in this story. I would highly recommend you read this book as the story is so wonderful and beautifully written!