Cages on Opposite Shores

by Janset Berkok Shami

Overview

Set in Istanbul, this novel tells the story of Meral, a modern-day Turkish woman searching for identity and renewal after leaving her husband of 11 years and realizing for the first time her part-Armenian heritage.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781566561570
Publisher:	Interlink Publishing Group, Incorporated
Publication date:	09/28/1995
Series:	Emerging Voices Series
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.33(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.68(d)

Editorial Reviews

The ferry that plies the Bosporus between the Asian and European shores of Turkey is the physical and metaphoric nexus of Shami's first novel, set in modern Istanbul. En route to meet the lawyer who is handling her divorce, Meral Demiray pauses to read from her deceased mother's diary, a painful account of Armenian heritage that reappears throughout Shami's novel. On the ferry, Meral encounters Dr. Zeki, whose loneliness overwhelms her own and she agrees to visit him. After one awkward visit to Dr. Zeki and his reclusive brother-in-law Orhan, Meral retreats to ``normal life,'' organizing exhibitions with the ladies of the Fine Arts Committee. But the haunted lonely men on the other shore compel Meral to return to them, to purge the trappings of her position in society in favor of more basic values, to confront her own personal history and demons. In so doing, her vulnerability rekindles a desire for human contact that Orhan has shunned for a decade and a course of civilized afternoon teas turns into a revelation of trust, altruism and self-discovery. The affirmative power of this work is graced with subtlety and simplicity. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly