After years spent fighting Kurdish rebels, Cemal is unsteady, a man trained for violence but not for reasoning. Four years older than Meryem, he is just returned from military service when his family presents him with his horrible duty. But Meryem, in her innocence, is excited to begin her journey, to see the world beyond the valley she has known all her life.Ĭemal, to me, was the most fascinating of the three main characters. When Cemal comes to take her away, to Istanbul she is told, the reader knows by the responses of the villagers (cruel jokes from some, tears from others) the true fate of the other girls who have ‘gone to Istanbul’, the girls who no one has heard from since. Meryem is bright and energetic, a winsome, naïve fifteen-year old village girl from Eastern Turkey. On the other hand, it held my interest, which many books have failed to do recently, and each of the three main characters gives fascinating insight into the multiple identities of modern Turkey. You’d think that the story of Meryem, a young woman raped by her uncle and of Cemal, the cousin who has been tasked with carrying out the honour killing would be gripping and most likely disturbing. On the one hand, it certainly didn’t thrill me. Livaneli with my other recent lackluster reads. I’m not quite sure if I want to class Bliss by O.Z.
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