In conversation with Jonathan Kirsch, author and L.A. Times book critic
The Bastard of Istanbul: A Novel
CANCELLED!
In this new work, Shafak – recently charged by the Turkish government with "insulting Turkishness" for a character's reference to the Armenian genocide – confronts her country's violent past in a vivid and colorful tale set in both Turkey and the United States.
Elif Shafak was born in 1971 in Strasbourg, France. She is an award-winning novelist and the most widely read woman writer in Turkey. Her books have been translated into more than twenty languages.
Shafak has published nine books, seven of which are novels. She writes in both Turkish and English. Shafak's first novel written in English, The Saint of Incipient Insanities, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Her second novel written in English is The Bastard of Istanbul (a literal Turkish translation of the title would be "The Father and the Bastard"), which was the bestselling book of 2006 in Turkey. The novel brought Shafak under prosecution by the Turkish government for "insulting Turkishness" under Article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code. The charges were ultimately dismissed.
