Another great historical fiction for this year by one of my faves. I can appreciate this book hasn't been everyone's cup of tea purely because of Elif's writing style. I can definitely say her writing has got a lot better in her more recent books. There are moments in this novel where I thought all the detail was unnecessary, none the less it picked up and made for really great storytelling.

The novel is set across two families, one Turkish and one Armenian. As with most of Shafak's narratives, many individual stories are told that eventually piece together in the most unexpected way. I cannot afford to go into details without flagging up for spoilers.

I have to say though, the book is important for having drawn attention to the massacres of the Armenian people and to the Turks' ambivalence about them, and for what it has exposed about freedom of speech. There is also a lot of female prowess flowing through this novel which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Between the Turkish edition and the English edition of this novel in 2006, Elif Shafak was put on trial for “denigrating Turkishness” under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. The charges that were brought against her were due to the words that some of the Armenian characters spoke in the novel; She could have been given up to a three-year prison sentence, but the charges were eventually dropped.