Pembe and Jamila are twins, born in Turkey as the eighth and ninth daughters of an exhausted mother. Time divides them; while Jamila stays by the banks of the Euphrates, Pembe travels to London with her husband Adem in search of a new life. But London is not entirely what she expected; living in a small flat, Pembe feels alienated from her husband and her beloved son Iskender.
Honour opens with Pembe's daughter collecting Iskender from jail; he's served a sentence for killing his mother. In lesser hands, this early shock could have detracted from the rest of the novel. However, Sharak's skill is such that our knowledge of Pembe's eventual fate lends urgency to the story. This is a richly detailed novel about London's overlooked outsiders: the family that live next to you, or the girl that serves you in the newsagents.
What sets Honour apart from similar novels is the evident sympathy and warmth Sharak feels for her characters. The novel explores the constrictive and corrosive effect of a strict code of honour on both men and women. Sad stories of lives destroyed by an obsession with honour and shame are at the heart of the book - Pembe's husband Adem is haunted by the spectre of his father, obsessed by his mother's "shameful" reputation and her son Iskender becomes a bully and a killer in a desperate attempt to maintain his own and his family's honour - but we do not condemn the characters, rather perceive them all as victims.
The novel has much to enjoy as well as provoke: rich descriptions of rural Turkey, comedy in Pembe's job at the hairdressers, romance in her discovery of a kindred spirit and an unexpected twist at the end. This is thoughtful and engrossing fiction which treats serious issues with a warm touch. I see from the blurb that Sharak is a feted author in her native Turkey; Honour deserves to win her acclaim and readers here too.
I bought this novel and did not receive a review copy. Honour is published by Penguin and is available now.
Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.6
No comments:
Post a Comment