Some years back, Turkish writer Elif Shafak faced a sentence of three years in prison for her splendid novel ‘The Bastard of Istanbul’, which deals with the 1915 Armenian genocide in Turkey and spans the European and North American continents.
Passages from her book will be read out and relevant presentations will be made at ‘Between the Lines’ the reader’s club at Gallery Gitanjali on Friday evening.
Archana Nagvekar will present the novel which will be followed by a discussion to be moderated by Esha Nadkarni and Gail Pinto.
‘The Bastard of Istanbul’ interweaves the paths of two families with a common origin rooted deep in the time of the Armenian Genocide in which over a million perished.
The story focuses on Asya Kazancı and Armanoush Tchakhmakhchian and is set in Arizona, San Francisco, California; and Istanbul in Turkey.
In the novel, 19-year-old Armanoush goes back to Turkey to track down his Armenian roots. It also explores how after the Armenian genocide in 1915, families lived through the scars and stayed connected.
The novel has been described as deeply political and heartbreakingly personal, blurring the boundaries separating both magic and reality and the past and the present.
Incidentally Shafak was acquitted from charges subsequently and her novel was adapted into a theatre play.
Book reading ‘The Bastard of Istanbul’
Gallery Gitanjali, Fontainhas, Panaji
6 pm today
Contact: +918806035195
