Book description
Turkey, 1999. A devastating earthquake brings Istanbul crumbling to the
ground, ripping apart the fragile stability of Sinan's world. His family
home becomes a makeshift tent in a camp run by Western missionaries whom
he stubbornly distrusts, and he soon finds himself struggling to protect
his family's honour and values. As he becomes a helpless witness to his
daughter's dangerous infatuation with a young American, Sinan takes a
series of drastic decisions with unforeseeable consequences. Cultures
clash, political and religious tensions mount, and Sinan's actions
spiral into a powerful and heartbreaking conclusion.
Alan Drew graduated from the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 2004. His
short fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train and elsewhere. He
lived in Turkey for three years, and was there at the time of the 1999
earthquake. He lives and teaches in Cincinnati, USA.
