Honour: The gripping historical novel about love, betrayal and clashing cultures from the bestselling author of There Are Rivers in the Sky

How good can a novel be? This is a wonderful story, by a brilliant writer. She has a fantastic ability to catch the right image. She describes the air plant, tillandsia, that has no roots but survives where it can, a metaphor for the exiled Elias, from everywhere and nowhere. Shafak is as comfortable describing Turkey in the 1950s as London in the 1970s. Her characters are not just cut outs against a carefully depicted background. They live, exist and move creating their world as much as they are shaped by it. We find cooks and hairdressers, midwives and microbiologists, anarchists and punks. A rich kaleidoscope of life. She suggests that there may be a magical, a higher purpose, in the everyday coincidence. Not all dreams are fulfilled, but not all nightmares are realised. At the heart of Honour there is an awful crime. The author shows how its seeds were sown in many families, over many generations in many lands. We are left to ask at the end whether the tragedy has fully unspooled, whether there really is a happy ending. No-one is entirely denied a better side. This allows us to stay with those – all men – whose "honour" directs violence and hate on sisters, mothers and daughters. Equally we feel a rage at this hate, which poisons sons and fathers and brothers. As in the other novels of hers that I have read, Elif Shafak avoids a narrative of revenge or redemptive violence. Forgiveness may be impossible, but hatred is no solution.

Elif Shafak's Honour hinges around one horrible crime. The nature of this crime itself is revealed within the first few pages, and the rest of the book is spent examining the lives of the people affected and the events that led up to and contributed to the event. It's a story that spans four generations, split between the remote villages of Turkey and the metropolis of 1970's London. When Pembe and Adem leave their home country to build a new life in Britain, their children must find a way to mesh new traditions with the old, to speak two languages and to adapt the cultural norms of their heritage to new situations. In Honour, Elif Shafak examines how gender, history and expectations combine to have a powerful impact on our behaviour and our future actions. It's also fair to say that this book is an exploration of immigrant culture. It looks in detail at the relationships between parents and their children and how a rich cultural history is blended with new experiences. I actually read this book while I was in Turkey, and the sections set in the villages really came to life for me. However, it felt as though it was lacking in the crucial emotional connection to the central characters. The narrative style, which tends to jump around between different times and different viewpoints, also made the novel quite hard to follow. It also meant that certain events were revealed out of sequence, taking away some of the tension from the main plotline. Honour does a great job of setting out facts and events and of creating a very real and powerful backdrop, but at no point does the author really use her position to give an opinion on the twin cultures that she's describing. It's up to us as readers to make the observations for ourselves. In doing so, I think the author misses out on an opportunity to get across what has the potential to be a very powerful statement.

Often not a comfortable read, particularly if you are of a Western mindset, but more than worth persevering with. Beautifully written and, as always, non-judgmental. The theme is both feminist and religious focusing on tradition and the subservience of women in conservative Islamic societies. It is clear where she stands but this is no polemic. Instead a calmly told story that dives deep into the core characters to explain how they look at the world. You may not like where the characters stand, but she explains where these attitudes come from. About time she got the Nobel Prize for literature.

Wonderful book that explains a lot about a culture that I knew little about. I found it a beautifully written book.

This book is a reflection of the power of culture, the place of the sexes within a culture, their relationships with their families and with each other. This story is a sad tale with just some glimmers of hope for its characters, which over the generations, finally show signs of becoming reality. It is a gripping, absorbing tale, which once or twice lapses into unnecessary detail, hence the 4 star rating rather than a 5. However, this should not put you off, it is easy enough to skim through these passages and it is well worth it to do so.

Personally I am not the biggest fan of different chapters "written" in a different characters voice across multiple timeframes even when they are prefaced with the relevant details of who, when and where, so I found this to be more disjointed than I would have liked. However, once it was all narrated through the characters, the story itself was relatively distinct although I still had queries on why it happened as it did. The explanations of the twins different lives across their lifetimes was so vividly opposing it made a counterpoint to them in particular. Although there were times I found it very hard to read this book, I think it is a good book to give an insight into how something like this could happen. I still cannot fathom the notion of it being 'honour', but I understand well the notions of disgrace to the family etc. and how the traditions of the background play into that feeling. On the whole, I felt it was a very worthwhile exercise to read this book which was both interesting and highly intriguing and though I was very tempted to give it another star, I resisted due to my personal dislike of so many narrators across so many times and places which left me feeling the story still had holes in it and I had slipped through time and understanding because of this. However, I can see how others would give it four or five stars.

Loved it! I couldn’t put this book down. It was one of those books that you stay up till 3am reading and annoyed that you have to stop to go to sleep.

First book I've read by Elif Shafak and it will definitely NOT be the last. A gripping and well thought out novel, good characterisation. Wonderfully written, especially considering that English is not her first language. Also very interesting and I learnt something about Turkish and Kurdish culture in the bargain.

It's my first book from the author and I am totally awestruck by her writing.. Every character is so well weaved and presented.. And we can never forget the characters.. I am looking forward to read all other books by Elif Shafak..

Molto interessante. Affronta temi molto delicati, come il ruolo della donna nelle culture mediorientali e la condizione di chi si trova ad emigrare in un altro Paese e deve affrontare le difficoltà legate all'incontro con un'altra cultura e con le discriminazioni.

The excellent writting that Elif Shafak has is amazing. The book opens many stories together - and different narrators-and the climax is within each story plus the general climax.Unpredictable, many supositions but any certainty up to the end that every story joint the other to a end with fireworks. As the Bastard of Istambul and the Forty rules of Love is GREAT. The writer brings her background through traditions and beliefs towards the 21 century female life and the cultural clash. An intense writing, difficult to put aside after reading the first lines

Elif Shafak's books will grow over distant years into timeless pillars of literary greatness. In the short term, I hope someone in a position power ensures her name is put forward gor the Nobel prize for literature.

A heart wrenching story of a Turkish immigrant family as they adjust to life in London in the 1970s. This narrative skips between characters and countries and times, so sometimes it is difficult to keep up with, but nevertheless this book is an absolute gem to read. The plot is so well crafted you won't be able to put it down!