Gardens of Water: A Novel
by Alan Drew
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Book Summary Information
Author: Alan DrewEdition: Hardcover
Published: 2008-02-05
ISBN: 1400066875
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Random House
Book Reviews of Gardens of Water: A Novel
Book Review: A Tragedy for Our Times
Summary: 4 Stars
GARDENS OF WATER is a tragedy for our times. Pick up today's newspaper and you will read stories about natural disasters, terrorism, religious fanaticism, intolerance, graft, greed, corruption, tradition vs. modernity, women's rights, Islam vs. the West, disaffected youth and intergenerational misunderstandings. Within this novel, Alan Drew's first, there is rich food for thought on all of these topics. Drawing on his personal experience of Turkey, Drew brings us this compelling story of a Kurdish family living near Istanbul. The family has moved to the city seeking a better life, and we follow their lives just before and for some time after an earthquake strikes. In Sinan, the father, we get to know a Muslim male figure with three dimensional depth, one of the few I have encountered in present day novels. Sinan is a proud, religious man who loves his family and struggles to provide for them, as he tries to plan for the future and to make sense of his own past. Orem, the teenage daughter, is caught between the (relatively)conservative religious world of her parents and the tantalizing freedom of more secular Turks and, particularly, an American boy her own age. Ismail, is the doted on, much beloved, younger brother. Nulifer, the dedicated wife and mother, is perhaps the least well-developed character of the family. However, the thoughts and actions of both female characters gave me a much greater understanding of the concept of modesty and honor in the world of Islam. A family of American missionaries are secondary characters in the book and present the reader with an opportunity to view Christian proselytizing from a Muslim's point of view. I would highly recommend this book to those with an interest in world events, more particularly an interest in Turkey, the Kurds, the Middle East and Islam. Auther Drew, without preaching or arriving at judgement, paints a gripping and tragic picture, and leaves each of us to draw our own conclusions.
Summary of Gardens of Water: A Novel
Powerful, emotional, and beautifully written, Alan Drew’s stunning first novel brings to life two unforgettable families–one Kurdish, one American–and the sacrifice and love that bind them together.In a small town outside Istanbul, Sinan Basioglu, a devout Muslim, and his wife, Nil?fer, are preparing for their nine-year-old son’s coming-of-age ceremony. Their headstrong fifteen-year-old daughter, İrem, resents the attention her brother, Ismail, receives from their parents. For her, there was no such festive observance–only the wrapping of her head in a dark scarf and strict rules that keep her hidden away from boys and her friends. But even before the night of the celebration, İrem has started to change, to the dismay of her Kurdish father. What Sinan doesn’t know is that much of her transformation is due to her secret relationship with their neighbor, Dylan, the seventeen-year-old American son of expatriate teachers.
İrem sees Dylan as the gateway to a new life, one that will free her from the confines of conservative Islam. Yet the young man’s presence and Sinan’s growing awareness of their relationship affirms Sinan’s wish to move his family to the safety of his old village, a place where his children would be sheltered from the cosmopolitan temptations of Istanbul, and where, as the civil war in the south wanes, he hopes to raise his children in the Kurdish tradition.
But when a massive earthquake hits in the middle of the night, the Basioglu family is faced with greater challenges. Losing everything, they are forced to forage for themselves, living as refugees in their own country. And their survival becomes dependent on their American neighbors, to whom they are unnervingly indebted. As love develops between İrem and Dylan, Sinan makes a series of increasingly dangerous decisions that push him toward a betrayal that will change everyone’s lives forever.
The deep bonds among father, son, and daughter; the tension between honoring tradition and embracing personal freedom; the conflict between cultures and faiths; the regrets of age and the passions of youth–these are the timeless themes Alan Drew weaves into a brilliant fiction debut.
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