Book description
Penguin Specials are designed to fill a gap. Written to be read over
a long commute or a short journey, they are original and exclusively
in digital form. This is Elif Shafak's examination of national identity.
"You know, I never understand. How come their children are
so quiet and well disciplined?"
"Yeah," said the distressed father, his voice suddenly
softer. "Blond children never cry, do they?"
As Elif Shafak stands in line at the airport, she overhears a
Turkish father expressing to a friend his bewilderment at the cultural
differences he's experienced since immigrating to northern Europe. Is
it true, she wonders, that the citizens of these countries are
genuinely happier? Why do people leave their homes for other
countries? And what lessons can we all learn, for the creation of
truly harmonious societies, from the experiences of immigrants?
In the light of the recent backlash against multiculturalism and the
influx of millions of Muslims into Europe from the east, this powerful
and personal essay uses the lived experience of immigrants to examine
this most hotly debated subject.
Elif Shafak is the acclaimed author of the award winning
The Gaze
and
The Bastard of Istanbul
and is the foremost female author in Turkey. She is a contributor for
the
Telegraph
,
Guardian
and
The New York Times
and her TED talk on the politics of fiction has received over 300,000
views since July 2010. She is married with two children and divides her
time between Istanbul and the UK.
