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    Honor
    Honor
    Honor
    Audiobook12 hours

    Honor

    Written by Elif Shafak

    Narrated by Mozhan Marno and Piter Marek

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Leaving her twin sister behind, Pembe leaves Turkey for love - following her husband Adem to London. There the Topraks hope to make new lives for themselves and their children. Yet, no matter how far they travel, the traditions and beliefs the Topraks left behind stay with them - carried in the blood.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateApr 12, 2013
    ISBN9781470347277
    Honor
    Author

    Elif Shafak

    Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist and the most widely read female author in Turkey. She writes in both Turkish and English, and has published seventeen books, eleven of which are novels. Her work has been translated into 50 languages. Her latest novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and RSL Ondaatje Prize; and chosen Blackwell's Book of the Year. Her previous novel, The Forty Rules of Love was chosen by BBC among 100 Novels that Shaped Our World. Shafak holds a PhD in political science and she has taught at various universities in Turkey, the US and the UK, including St Anne's College, Oxford University, where she is an honorary fellow. She is a member of Weforum Global Agenda Council on Creative Economy and a founding member of ECFR (European Council on Foreign Relations). An advocate for women's rights, LGBT rights and freedom of speech, Shafak is an inspiring public speaker and twice TED Global speaker, each time receiving a standing ovation. Shafak contributes to major publications around the world and she was awarded the medal of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2017 she was chosen by Politico as one of the twelve people "who will give you a much needed lift of the heart". Shafak has judged numerous literary prizes, and chaired the Wellcome Prize and is presently judging the Orwell Prize. www.elifshafak.com

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    Reviews for Honor

    4/5

    112 ratings13 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Such an amazing story teller . The narrator is beautifully done and you just get pulled in to the lives of this family
    • 5/5
      Honor by Elif ShafakThis is a beautifully written book of a Turkish family that comes to be separated by those going off to England & other places in an attempt to make a better life for themselves and their families. One daughter, one of a pair of twins, remains behind and eventually grows into becoming a midwife. Her twin lives in England with her family.This is a difficult book for me to review for there are so many story lines within these covers. But they were all easy to follow and very interesting. The book contains many incidents of great beauty and also many of horrific events. I learned about the Turkish/Kurdish cultures and appreciated the knowledge & sharing of this author. I rated the book 4 1/2 stars and fully intend to read more by her. She is a beautiful writer. I highly recommend this book to any who are interested in reading about cultures other than their own.
    • 5/5
      Such a beautiful well connected novel that really takes you for a ride! I feel so many things about the ending, but I get it.
    • 5/5
      Richly told, well drawn characters, and wisdom abounding as in all Elif Shafak’s books. The readers were especially good.
    • 5/5
      A novel about a killing within a muslim family in London, this novel has the capacity to constantly surprise the reader. Just when you think it has given up all its secrets, more emerge. It’s dense in detail without sacrificing readability, and the narrative switches between characters, giving them all time in the spotlight, and developing some sub-plots that were gripping in themselves (Jamila and the bandit in particular). Not an author I’d heard of before, but I would definitely read more of her work.
    • 4/5
      Quite an extraordinary book. The books by Turkish authors that I've read before have had such an overlay of melancholy that it was difficult to differentiate between one person'a misery and another. Ms Shafak is several tiers higher in talent. Each of her characters, however mystical or alien to my background, is clearly delineated and understandable in the context of his or her life. Occasional gems of close to perfect descriptions of a movement only add to the overall mood. The core of this history of three generations of one family is the women -- how they live and die -- and how one is killed by a male relative for honor. Altho I doubt I will ever sympathize with that motivation, I now believe I understand it at least a bit better. I look forward to reading this author's other books over time.
    • 3/5
      The novel begins with a woman driving to pick up her brother on his release from prison. She's deeply ambivalent, and the novel then goes back in time; to Iskander's time in prison, to the months before he commits the crime, and farther back to the childhoods of their parents in Turkey, especially that of his mother, Pembe, who grows up in a small Kurdish village with her twin sister, who doesn't emigrate to England, but remains behind, unmarried and respected as being the closest thing that area has to a doctor. Şafak varies the writing in the novel, with the Kurdish and Turkish portions reading like unfamiliar folktales and the parts set in London written in a more straightforward style. This is a novel about immigrants and their children, how they change in response to their new home and how they refuse to change, and how their children juggle two very different worlds. This was an interesting and thought-provoking book. At times I was frustrated with the hypocrisy built into the patriarchal society the characters come from, but the writing was lovely and the issues and questions raised never took precedence over the characters.
    • 4/5
      Enthralling, deftly written novel of a Turkish/Kurdish family through several generations and their immigrant experience in England dealing with attempting to adapt to English society, still holding on to their culture. They face prejudice from the English and the oldest son, Iskender, perpetrates an "honor killing" after his mother, abandoned by her weak, feckless husband, enters into a platonic relationship with a middle-aged man. This has repercussions that affect the whole family.We follow the narrative from several family members' viewpoints; the story doesn't follow a linear path but moves from different family members and different years. It took me awhile to get used to this, but chapter headings did make the time periods and locations evident. In this thoughtful novel, we discover the nature of love, guilt, shame, misunderstanding, repentance, and forgiveness. One character expresses the thought that "honor lies in the heart, not in the bedroom." The author evokes vividly Turkey, the small Kurdish village near Syria, and blue-collar London. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      A compelling story that kept me intrigued til the very end. I will definitely read more by Elif Shafak.
    • 4/5
      Honor tells the story of several members of a Turkish-Kurdish family, extending over several generations and taking place in Turkey, the UK, and Abu Dhabi. It centers around Iskender, a man about to be released from an English prison. His crime: the honor killing of his mother when he was a teenager. The novel weaves back and forth through time: from the birth of his mother, Pembe, and her twin, Jamila; to Iskandar's fleeing from his circumcision; to Pembe's marriage to Adem in a Kurdish village and their early years in London; to the youngest son Yunus's infatuation with a punk girl; to Adem's drinking, gambling, and eventual desertion; to Pembe's meetings with Elias; to young Adem's memories of his depressed mother; to Iskender's prison experiences; and finally to a rather surprising conclusion. If this sounds a bit complex and confusing, well, yes, it is at first. So many voices, so many stories, so much jumping around in time. But I got used to it and eventually sorted everyone out. Part of the reason for the odd chronology is, I'm sure, to make the point that events have an impact on future generations. For example, Adem was excessively indulged by his mother, and so was Iskender, and both turned out to have little regard for the feelings of others. Pembe had seen a sister literally die of shame, yet she finds herself the object of an honor killing. The family has moved from Turkey to London, and the children live very modern lives, yet Iskender gets caught up in the Muslim traditionalist movement. Once I sorted out the initial complications, I enjoyed making the connections in the various sections. While I agree with other reviewers who found that the plot relies a little too heavily on coincidence at times, nevertheless, I found the characters unique and compelling and got caught up in their stories. I'm looking forward to reading more by Elif Shafak.
    • 3/5
      Ambiguous is the word I’d use to describe this book mainly due to the feeling of being lost in the beginning and confused through out the rest. Elif Shafak tells us a story of a family through a multitude of different perspectives, spanning over three generations and a range of different times and places.I personally feel neutral when it comes to this book, I neither like nor dislike it. I think I enjoyed it while I read it but truth be told there are a number of things that don’t really fit. As a long term addict to fanfiction I am weary when it comes to people filling more drama in to a book than seems natural and the amount of misfortune that is embedded in to the lives of these characters is just… Astounding.Lets start with the good, if we were to look back at out lives past we will find that there are certain events we feel define us more than others, nostalgia is always prominent as is exaggeration of hardships (when you really think about it) but most books are written in the present, while the feelings and experiences are still raw and fresh for the lead character. Honour is written in the same way, albeit in the points of view of many characters spanning many periods of time, and in that respect I find the Shafak has written a very plausible account of a family’s struggles, I feel she deserves points for being relatable and being a wonderful story teller (which at the end of the day is all the really matters in an author, or so is my personal opinion).SpoilersBut if we look at the monumental amount of misfortune (AKA the Bad), poor Naze as a women living in a small village feels it is her duty to produce a boy (which kinda offends my feminists ideals but is understandable as through out history it was expected for a woman to produce a male heir and is still the misguided rationale in some parts of the east, at least that’s what my extended family seem to believe) and is blessed with twin daughters which she names ‘Enough’ and ‘Destiny’ (which are renamed by their father Pink Destiny and Enough Beauty). It is ridiculous for her to be angry at the birth of two daughters and no son, it is a matter of pride not honour.Then there is Adem, a character which deeply infuriates me as amongst many of his other wrong doings he chooses to marry Pembe (Pink Destiny) instead of the girl he claims to love Jamila (Enough Beauty) all because her ‘Honour’ has been tarnished through no fault of her own. Once more this a matter of Pride!There are many other flaws in many other characters that I wish to passionately vent about but as this review seems to be getting on a bit in length so I’ll finish with Pembe, she starts off as a strong willed, intelligent child who you hope will one day achieve great things but she turns in to this paranoid superstitious overbearing mother which is fair enough as people change but this formerly intelligent, head strong girl let a stranger name her first born and how is it that she is very clingy when it comes to seven year old Yunus but he still manages to spend large quantities of time at a house running errands (delivering Drugs I think ) for the squatters occupying said house. The cracks in the characters need to be filled and without such fillings I can be nought but frustrated.Finally I wish to address the subject of Honour killings, I am simply infuriated that they (Iskender) dare justify murder of a family member (His own Mother) with the poor excuse that they had tarnished the family’s ‘honour’ (even though his father had gambled away all their money and had run off with an ‘exotic dancer’) I honestly can’t believe (well actually I can) that people do such vile things.In conclusion I think that this book should have been named Pride (I strongly believe that honour and pride aren't the same thing!), and I’m not sure whether this is a less than par book due to how frustrating it is or whether it is simply genius for producing such a passionate response in me but I urge you to read it and make up your own mind as not everyone has the same experience though they may be reading the same words.
    • 4/5
      I thoroughly enjoyed this book which offers insight into an important and timely topic. Here in Canada we’ve recently had the Shafia case involving the “honour” killings of four female members by the family patriarch, his wife, and the eldest son; but Canada is not alone among western nations in having to confront such incidents. The story revolves around the Toprak family, a Kurdish-Turkish family of immigrants in London. The family consists of Adem, the father; Pembe, the mother; and their three children: Iskender, the eldest son; Esma, the only daughter; and Yunus, the youngest child. The novel begins in London in 1992 with Iskender’s release from prison after serving a fourteen-year sentence for the “honour” killing of his mother. Most of the book is a series of flashbacks spanning the years 1945 to 1992 as we learn about Pembe’s parents, Pembe’s upbringing (along with that of her twin sister Jamila and her six other sisters) in a small Kurdish village near the Euphrates River, Adem’s childhood and family life in Istanbul, and the lives of the Toprak family members in London after their emigration in 1970.From the beginning, the differences between males and females are emphasized. The difference begins with the names given to sons and daughters: “Male names embodied power, ability and authority. . . . Female names, however, reflected a delicate daintiness . . . [since] women were decorations for this world, pretty trimmings on the side, but not too essential.” Pembe is born into a world where “’honour’ was more than a word. It was also a name. You could call your child ‘Honour’, as long as it was a boy. Men had honour. Old men, middle-aged men, even schoolboys so young that they still smelled of their mother’s milk. Women did not have honour. Instead, they had shame.”The honour code of Islamic culture is outlined, a code that states that “the honour of the family is deemed to be more important than the happiness of its individuals.” That code is enforced by women as well as men. It is Pembe’s mother who asserts that she would never accept a daughter’s shaming the family by leaving a husband, even if he was abusive; she says, “’No daughter of mine will abandon her husband. If she does, I’ll beat the hell out of her, even if I’m dead by then. I’ll come back as a ghost.’” Women are obsessed with bearing sons, and those that do, dote on them as Pembe does on her eldest, “Her sultan, her lion, the apple of her eye.”Men have much more latitude in their behaviour. In the novel, a dishonourable man who abandons his family for life with an exotic dancer goes unpunished, yet a young woman who attempts to elope is given a rope with the unspoken order to do what is “honourable.” A young Muslim man may flirt publicly and have extra-marital sex with a non-Muslim girl, but can insist that his own mother not work outside the home and certainly not have even a chaste friendship with a man. A man who should provide guidance to a young man instead incites him to violence against a woman, in part because his family was disgraced by the abandonment of his mother; the fact that his father was a drunk and physically abusive is dismissed.There are some weaknesses in the novel. In particular, there are the coincidences, too many for my liking. The delinquent son of Esma’s favourite primary-school teacher crosses paths with Yunus and in the end both mother and son play a pivotal role in the future of both of the younger Toprak children? Adem curiously encounters Iskender’s radical mentor who ends up impacting Adem’s life as well as influencing that of his son? There is also some plot manipulation: the introduction of the Amber Concubine seems contrived, and the plot twist near the end stretches credibility, although the enigmatic opening and the comedy of errors during Adem’s first visit to the Kurdish village do function as foreshadowing. The relationship between the 7-year-old Yunus and the 20-year-old Tobiko is unrealistic, and Pembe’s lack of supervision of her youngest son’s activities is also unbelievable. Despite these flaws, the novel is certainly a good read, and its strengths far outweigh its weaknesses. It deals with serious issues and has some heartbreaking scenes, but it is ultimately hopeful: “In this world every creature was made to challenge, to change” and it is possible to find a man “who believes that honour has got to do with people’s hearts rather than their bedrooms.” I will definitely be recommending this book and seeking out Shafak’s other novels in English. Note: I received a pre-release copy of the book from the publisher via NetGalley.
    • 4/5
      A wonderfully crafted tale centering around the lives of twin sisters born in a Kurdish village who eventually separate when one twin marries and moves to London, a city whose culture couldn't be more different than her own. The story takes the reader backwards and forwards through time, with each leap providing rich details that shed light on the central event of the book - a crime committed in an attempt to preserve a family's honor. As someone born in the Western world, it was quite enlightening to learn of the subtleties and customs of a culture that is somewhat foreign to me, especially from the perspective of various key characters in the book. On the negative side, I felt a little lost early on in the book with each leap through both time and narrators, trying to remember who was who. And by the end of the book, I was disappointed at some of the story lines never culminated into anything substantial, and were just left hanging, to the point where I wondered why they were in the book in the first place. The best example of this is the 'Orator' who makes an appearance several times in the book, but in the end, his presence didn't add much to he book, except illustrate that Iskender was the leader in his group of friends. [spoiler alert] I also couldn't comprehend Pembe's decision to go into hiding after her sister's murder, leaving her children behind without parents to care for them. She had nothing to gain by doing so except perhaps to preserve her family's honor, but the cost was much greater than the benefit. She could have just left town with her kids (perhaps as Jamila if required) and started a new life elsewhere. I would have expected the author to help us understand this decision better, by telling it from Pembe's perspective. But despite the couple of negative points, I still thoroughly enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to others.