I have been staring at my screen for quite some time now, not sure where do I begin. Elif Shafak, I came to know the name when people was talking about her Forty Rules of Love so I googled her. But it took 2 years to finally read her book. Drawn by the title, The Three Daughters of Eve. It felt, befitting at that time. That’s how I always operate on my reading. I picked everything I read on a whim. An emotional reader, after all.
Heavy. That’s what I felt. Through and through. But I need it. Question upon question about God, faith—you can’t simply throw such questions and expected it to be just a simple layer of literature.💬 Summary
Peri, a married, wealthy, beautiful Turkish woman, is on her way to a dinner party at a seaside mansion in Istanbul when a beggar snatches her handbag. As she wrests it back, a photograph falls to the ground—an old polaroid of three young women and their university professor. A relic from a past—and a love—Peri had tried desperately to forget.
Over the course of the dinner, and amidst an opulence that is surely ill-begotten, terrorist attacks occur across the city. Competing in Peri’s mind, however, are the memories invoked by her almost-lost polaroid, of the time years earlier when she was sent abroad for the first time, to attend Oxford University. As a young woman there, she had become friends with the charming, adventurous Shirin, a fully assimilated Iranian girl, and Mona, a devout Egyptian-American. Together the three are the Sinner, the Believer, and the Confused. Their arguments about Islam and feminism find focus in the charismatic but controversial Professor Azur, who teaches divinity, but in unorthodox ways. As the terrorist attacks come ever closer, Peri is moved to recall the scandal that tore them all apart.
Over the course of the dinner, and amidst an opulence that is surely ill-begotten, terrorist attacks occur across the city. Competing in Peri’s mind, however, are the memories invoked by her almost-lost polaroid, of the time years earlier when she was sent abroad for the first time, to attend Oxford University. As a young woman there, she had become friends with the charming, adventurous Shirin, a fully assimilated Iranian girl, and Mona, a devout Egyptian-American. Together the three are the Sinner, the Believer, and the Confused. Their arguments about Islam and feminism find focus in the charismatic but controversial Professor Azur, who teaches divinity, but in unorthodox ways. As the terrorist attacks come ever closer, Peri is moved to recall the scandal that tore them all apart.
💟 What I love
— This book also exposes Istanbul, both the city and the conflicts. Between East and West, religious and secular, rich and poor. This one invoked so many emotions in me – I could really relate to this but at some point, detached. It is a thrilling experience indulging in this one. As a Muslim, and a woman – I was deeply resonated by the issues thrown in this book. Where is God? What is God? How – God?It almost surreal a book could affect you this much.
I grew a serious love for this book and the author. She has become amongst my favourite author of all time, further cemented after 10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in this Strange World –that, is the story for another day. Being a Muslim woman in this testing time, is proved to be a challenge and Shafak, wrote it all down for me in her beautiful prose. I thank her for that. Safe to say, I’d be collecting her books from now on.
I grew a serious love for this book and the author. She has become amongst my favourite author of all time, further cemented after 10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in this Strange World –that, is the story for another day. Being a Muslim woman in this testing time, is proved to be a challenge and Shafak, wrote it all down for me in her beautiful prose. I thank her for that. Safe to say, I’d be collecting her books from now on.
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