Book Review #3: Honour

Author(s): Elif Shafak

Genre: crime, drama, family, romance
Number of pages: 352
Released: 2011

RATINGS…

Plot: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 5/5
Overall enjoy-ability: 5/5

THOUGHTS?

It’s a powerful book. It’s one of those that make you think and re-consider yourself and your situation, but at the same time has the most amazingly dramatic and compelling story.

Elif tells the story of a Turkish-Kurdish family’s life, first in a tiny village by a river, then in the crazy streets of London. The chapters are short, but each tells a different part of the story - they’re mixed up when it comes to time, place, and character. For example, one chapter might be set in London in the 90s, from the point of view of Iskender Toprak, and the chapter after it might be set in his aunt Jamila’s shack in Turkey, 20 years earlier. In the end, all those little parts of the story fit together like a giant puzzle, and everything makes sense, and it makes you feel so great because you finally understand how this event influenced that one, and how those words triggered this consequence…

There’s definitely a LOT going on, all the time. None of the chapters are boring, none. I finished the book in a few days, and I consider myself a slow reader, so that says something about how drawn in I was!

This book is definitely one of my top three. It was so action-packed, so dramatic, there’s so much you can learn about culture and how differences in race can affect someone very deeply, you ‘watch’ the characters grow up and develop and you can see why they acted the way they did, even if you believe it to be the wrong thing to do. The complexity of the events is truly amazing.

There are elements of romance, there’s definitely a lot of mystery and crime, but my favourite parts where the issues between the Toprak family - how their culture allowed them to behave and how it forbid them to behave at the same time, and how it was all about honour, nothing else - not love, happiness, safety - everything was for the honour of the family.

Elif’s writing style is flawless. She portrays her characters in the most perfect way, a way that matches the story so well - everything just flows.

I honestly have nothing negative to say about this novel.

Life-changing, truly.

How did you find the book?

J x