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	#Post#: 386442--------------------------------------------------
	Elif ?afak
	By: Angel/Poyraz Date: September 15, 2013, 6:56 am
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	<img
	src=\"
	http://haber.sol.org.tr/sites/default/files/imagecache/haber_resmi_v4/images/el…
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	lif ?afak (also spelled Elif Shafak
	,
	born 25 October 1971, Strasbourg, France) is an established and
	outspoken Turkish author, columnist, speaker and academic. \"As
	Turkey\'s bestselling female writer, ?afak is a brave champion
	of cosmopolitanism, a sophisticated feminist, and an ambitious
	novelist who infuses her magical-realist fiction with big,
	important ideas...\".
	Critics have named her as \"one of the
	most distinctive voices in contemporary Turkish and world
	literature\". Her books have been translated into 39 languages,
	and she was awarded the honorary distinction of Chevalier of the
	Order of Arts and Letters in 2010. ?afak has published twelve
	books, eight of which are novels. She writes fiction in both
	Turkish and English. ?afak blends Western and Eastern traditions
	of storytelling, bringing out the myriad stories of women,
	minorities, immigrants, subcultures, youth and global souls. Her
	work draws on diverse cultures and literary traditions, as well
	as deep interest in history, philosophy, Sufism, oral culture,
	and cultural politics. ?afak�s writing breaks down categories,
	clich�s, and cultural ghettos, bringing out the multiple stories
	of minorities, immigrants, women, subcultures and global souls.
	She also has a keen eye for black humor, as well as
	spirituality, Sufism and Ottoman culture, with \"a particular
	genius for depicting backstreet Istanbul\'\'
	img
	src=\"
	http://medya.zaman.com.tr/2009/03/07/safak01.jpg\"<br
	/>alt=\"safak01.jpg\">
	#Post#: 386443--------------------------------------------------
	Elif ?afak
	By: Angel/Poyraz Date: September 15, 2013, 6:56 am
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	<img
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	#Post#: 386444--------------------------------------------------
	Elif ?afak
	By: Angel/Poyraz Date: September 15, 2013, 6:57 am
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	<img
	src=\"
	http://www.elifsafak.us/en/resimx/elif_shafak_20120315203801_1.jpg\"<br
	/>alt=\"elif_shafak_20120315203801_1.jpg\">
	nd so begins the
	story of Esma a young Kurdish woman in London trying to come to
	terms with the terrible murder her brother has committed. Esma
	tells the story of her family stretching back three generations;
	back to her grandmother and the births of her mother and Aunt in
	a village on the edge of the Euphrates. Named Pembe and Jamila,
	meaning Pink and Beautiful rather than the names their mother
	wanted to call them, Destiny and Enough, the twin girls have
	very different futures ahead of them all of which will end in
	tragedy on a street in East London in 1978. A powerful,
	brilliant and moving account of murder, love and family set in
	Kurdistan, Istanbul and London
	#Post#: 386445--------------------------------------------------
	Elif ?afak
	By: Angel/Poyraz Date: September 15, 2013, 6:58 am
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	<img
	src=\"
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	n acclaimed Turkish
	novelist�s personal account of balancing a writer�s life with a
	mother�s life. After the birth of her first child in 2006,
	Turkish writer Elif Shafek suffered from postpartum depression
	that triggered a profound personal crisis. Infused with guilt,
	anxiety, and bewilderment about whether she could ever be a good
	mother, Shafak stopped writing and lost her faith in words
	altogether. In this elegantly written memoir, she retraces her
	journey from free-spirited, nomadic artist to dedicated by
	emotionally wrought mother. Identifying a constantly bickering
	harem of women who live inside of her, each with her own
	characteristics-the cynical intellectual, the goal-oriented
	go-getter, the practical-rational, the spiritual, the maternal,
	and the lustful-she craves harmony, or at least a unifying
	identity. As she intersperses her own experience with the lives
	of prominent authors such as Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, Alice
	Walker, Ayn Rand, and Zelda Fitzgerald, Shafak looks for a
	solution to the inherent conflict between artistic creation and
	responsible parenting. With searing emotional honesty and an
	incisive examination of cultural mores within patriarchal
	societies, Shafak has rendered an important work about
	literature, motherhood, and spiritual well-being.
	#Post#: 386446--------------------------------------------------
	Elif ?afak
	By: Angel/Poyraz Date: September 15, 2013, 6:59 am
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	<img
	src=\"
	http://www.elifsafak.us/en/resimx/resim_20090731005648_1.jpg\"<br
	/>alt=\"resim_20090731005648_1.jpg\">
	HE FORTY RULES OF LOVE -
	Praise
	"In The Forty Rules of Love, Elif Shafak has woven a
	wonderful tale of love and spiritual longing, brilliantly
	exploring the universal desire for intimacy� with another human
	being, as well as with the divine. It is provocative in the best
	sense of that term, a rare novel that succeed in illuminating
	the mystical aspects of daily existence, a novel of intelligence
	as well as heart, with wisdom that infuses every page.\" --
	Roland Merullo, author of A Little Love Story and Breakfast with
	Buddha
	"The Forty Rules of Love is a wise, joyous
	page-turner... and one that speaks urgently to our war-ravaged
	times.\" -- Thrity Umrigar, author of The Space Between Us
	"How
	can I love well? With The Forty Rules of Love, you can pour out
	your heart, break out of your stuck places, mysteriously fall in
	love, and find the deep joy of freedom.\" -- Jack Kornfield,
	author of The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of
	Buddhist Psychology
	HE FORTY RULES OF LOVE - Summary
	n
	American housewife is transformed by an intriguing manuscript
	about the Sufi mystic poet Rumi In this lyrical, exuberant
	follow-up to her 2007 novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, acclaimed
	Turkish author Elif Shafak unfolds two tantalizing parallel
	narratives- one contemporary and the other set in the thirteenth
	century, when Rumi encountered his spiritual mentor, the
	whirling dervish known as Shams of Tabriz-that together
	incarnate the poet�s timeless message of love. Ella Rubenstein
	is forty years old and unhappily married when she takes a job as
	a reader for a literary agent. Her first assignment is to read
	and report on Sweet Blasphemy, a novel written by a man named
	Aziz Zahara. Ella is mesmerized by his tale of Shams�s search
	for Rumi and the dervish�s role in transforming the successful
	but unhappy cleric into a committed mystic, passionate poet, and
	advocate of love. She is also taken with Shams�s lessons, or
	rules, that offer insight into an ancient philosophy based on
	the unity of all people and religions, and the presence of love
	in each and every one of us. As she reads on, she realizes that
	Rumi�s story mirrors her own and that Zahara-like Shams-has come
	to set her free.
	#Post#: 386447--------------------------------------------------
	Elif ?afak
	By: Angel/Poyraz Date: September 15, 2013, 7:01 am
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	<img
	src=\"
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	/>alt=\"resim_20070211061705_1.jpg\">
	HE BASTARD OF ISTANBUL by
	Elif Shafak Publisher Viking/Penguin, January 22, 2007
	n THE
	BASTARD OF ISTANBUL, Turkish author Elif Shafak confronts her
	country\'s violent past in a vivid and colorful tale about the
	tangled history of two families � one Turkish and one Armenian
	American.
	sya is a nineteen year old woman who loves Johnny
	Cash and the French existentialists. She lives in an extended
	household in Istanbul, where she has been raised, with no father
	in sight, by her mother, the beautiful and irreverent Zehila
	Kazanci, and by Zehila�s three older sisters: Banu, a devout
	woman who has rediscovered herself as a clairvoyant; Cevriye, a
	prim, widowed high school teacher; and Feride, a hypochondriac
	obsessed with impending disaster. Their lone brother, Mustapha,
	left Turkey many years earlier and now lives in Tucson with an
	American woman named Rose, who has one daughter from a previous
	marriage to an Armenian man. This daughter, Armanoush, is
	nineteen and splits her time between Tucson and San Francisco,
	where her father�s family lives.
	s an Armenian living in
	America, Armanoush feels that part of her identity is missing
	and that she must make a journey back to the past, to Turkey, in
	order to start living her life. She secretly flies to Istanbul,
	finds the Kazanci sisters, and becomes fast friends with Asya. A
	secret is eventually uncovered that links the two families
	together and ties them to the 1915 Armenian deportations and
	massacres.
	n exuberant, dramatic novel that features vigorous,
	unforgettable female characters, The Bastard of Istanbul
	explores issues of gender and cultural identity as well as
	addressing contemporary political and religious topics in
	Turkey. When this novel was published in Turkey, Shafak was
	accused by nationalistic lawyers of insulting Turkish identity.
	The charges were later dropped, and now readers in America can
	discover for themselves this bold and powerful tale, one that
	confirms its author as a rising star of fiction.
	The characters
	in The Bastard of Istanbul are so alive they leap off the page
	to sit beside you on the couch. What women! Brave ones, silly
	ones, intellectuals and dopes. Whether they are in Istanbul or
	San Francisco, they�re your neighbors. This is the rare family
	saga (blessedly without schmaltz) that understands the value of
	both modernity and tradition. I loved the wry humor and the
	social observations, as well as the author putting the personal
	lives of her people in a larger political tableau. Elif Shafak
	has created a world that enlarges our understanding of our own.�
	-- Susan Isaacs, author of Shining Through and Anyplace I Hang
	My Hat
	Mixing humor and tragedy as effortlessly as her two
	unforgettable families blend and jumble up the many layers of
	their identity, Elif Shafak offers up an extravagant tale of
	Istanbul and Arizona, food and remorse, mysticism and tattoos,
	human comedy and, yes, genocide. Quite an exceptional literary
	feast.� -- Ariel Dorfman, author of Widows and Death and the
	Maiden
	#Post#: 386448--------------------------------------------------
	Elif ?afak
	By: Angel/Poyraz Date: September 15, 2013, 7:04 am
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	<img
	src=\"
	http://www.elifsafak.us/en/resimx/resim_20061001024058_1.jpg\"<br
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	HE SAINT OF INCIPIENT
	INSANITIES by Elif Shafak
	ublisher Farrar Straus & Giroux,
	September 2004
	he stunning English-language debut of an
	acclaimed Turkish author
	HE SAINT OF INCIPIENT INSANITIES is
	the comic and heartbreaking story of a group of twenty-something
	friends, and their never-ending quest for fulfillment.
	er, Abed
	and Piyu are roommates, foreigners all recently arrived in the
	United States. Omer, from Istanbul, is a Ph.D. student in
	political science who adapts quickly to his new home, and falls
	in love with the bisexual, suicidal, intellectual chocolate
	maker Gail. Gail is American yet feels utterly displaced in her
	homeland and moves from one obsession to another in an effort to
	find solid ground. Abed pursues a degree in biotechnology,
	worries about Omer�s unruly ways, his mother�s unexpected visit,
	and stereotypes of Arabs in America; he struggles to maintain a
	connection with his girlfriend back home in Morocco. Piyu is a
	Spaniard, who is studying to be a dentist in spite of his fear
	of sharp objects, and is baffled by the many relatives of his
	Mexican-American girlfriend, Algre, and in many ways by Algre
	herself.
	eenly insightful and sharply humorous, The Saint of
	Incipient Insanities is a vibrant exploration of love,
	friendship, culture, nationality, exile and belonging.
	"This is
	an exhilarating roller coaster ride of a novel-a breathless and
	vivid journey into the lives of a motley assortment of
	brilliant, obsessive, and often troubled young immigrants, and
	an American whom one of them marries. With its themes of
	displacement, its Boston-area setting, and its ease with
	academic topics, Shafak s novel suggests Jhumpa Lahiri s The
	Namesake with the amplifier cranked up all the way to eleven. A
	work replete with dazzling wordplay, an infatuation with pop
	culture, and a fearless intellect, The Saint of Incipient
	Insanities marks Elif Shafak as a compellingly original voice in
	21st Century fiction.\" -- Adam Langer, author of Crossing
	California
	"Elif Shafak offers us an indelibly haunting
	portrait of contemporary America, in all its
	sexual/ethno/religious contortions. Goofy, sad, wise, and
	heart-breakingly funny, her novel is a bittersweet delight to
	read.\" --Fernanda Eberstadt, author of The Furies
	#Post#: 386449--------------------------------------------------
	Elif ?afak
	By: Angel/Poyraz Date: September 15, 2013, 7:06 am
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	<img
	src=\"
	http://www.elifsafak.us/en/resimx/resim_20061001062917_1.jpg\"<br
	/>alt=\"resim_20061001062917_1.jpg\">
	et within a once-stately
	apartment block in Istanbul, The Flea Palace tells the story of
	Bonbon Palace, built by a Russian emigrate, for his wife at the
	end of the Tsarist reign, now sadly dilapidated, flea-infested
	and home to ten different individuals and their families... By
	turns comic and tragic, The Flea Palace is an outstanding
	original novel driven by an overriding sense of social
	justice.
	rom the Back Cover
	hafak uses the narrative structure
	of A Thousand and One Nights to construct a
	story-within-a-story, as the mystery of the apartments stolen
	garbage is considered from a variety of perspectives. There is
	the narrator, a womanizing, raki-swilling academic with a
	penchant for Kierkegaard; Hygiene Tijen, the clean freak , and
	her lice-ridden daughter Su; madly flamboyant Ethel, a lapsed
	Jew in search of true love, and the charmingly naive Blue
	Mistress whose personal secret is just one of many hidden within
	the confines of the building. Add to this a strange,
	intensifying stench, the cause of which is revealed at the end
	of the book, and we have a metaphoric conduit for the cultural
	and spiritual decay at the heart of Istanbul.
	#Post#: 386450--------------------------------------------------
	Elif ?afak
	By: Angel/Poyraz Date: September 15, 2013, 7:07 am
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	<img
	src=\"
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	riginally published in
	Turkey in 1999 to wide acclaim, this screwball love story is
	Shafak s third novel. (Her fifth, The Saint of Incipient
	Insanities, was published here in 2004.) Loosely organized
	around a neurotic obese woman and a feisty dwarf, it teems with
	parallel plots and digressions, freely leaping from modern
	apartment living in Istanbul to a 19th-century Turkish freak
	show and fur hunts in 17th-century Siberia. Shafak s prose (ably
	translated by Freely) follows a humorous, idiosyncratic course,
	seizing on arresting visual details, such as \"a house the color
	of salted green almonds\" and dispensing oddly charming
	aphorisms: \"Love is a corset.\" (She adds: \"In order to
	understand the value of this you have to be exceedingly fat.\")
	At one moment, a faceless newborn s features are etched on by an
	anxious aunt; at another, a shipwrecked Russian sailor surprises
	a shaman in flagrante delicto with an oversized sable. The early
	parts of the novel can feel maddeningly unfocused for a book
	about the power of the stare. Later pages home in on an
	unexpected emotional trauma, and the atmosphere of fantastical
	levity clears to reveal an urgent, human pain. Shafak probes the
	many ironies of appearance and perception with entertaining and
	affecting results. (Oct.) Copyright � Reed Business Information,
	a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
	"An
	enchanting combination of compassion and cruelty. Elif Shafak
	is the best author to come out of Turkey in the last
	decade.\"-Orhan Pamuk
	new title from the author of The Flea
	Palace, shortlisted for the Independent Prize for Foreign
	Fiction and chosen for Waterstone\'s 2005 Summer Reading
	promotion. In her prize-wining novel, The Gaze, Shafak explores
	the subject of body image and desirability. An overweight woman
	and her lover, a dwarf, are sick of being stared at wherever
	they go, and decide to reverse roles. The man goes out wearing
	make up, and the woman draws a mustache on her face. The couple
	deal with the gaze of passers by in different ways. The woman
	wants to hide away from the world, while the man meets them head
	on, even compiling his own Dictionary of the Gaze to show the
	powerful effects a simple look can have. The narrative of The
	Gaze is intertwined with the dwarf s dictionary entries and the
	story of a bizarre freak-show organized in Istanbul in the 1880s
	as Shafak explores the damage which can be done by our simple
	desire to look at other people.
	#Post#: 386451--------------------------------------------------
	Elif ?afak
	By: Angel/Poyraz Date: September 15, 2013, 7:09 am
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	�the severed branches were still reaching for air�
	riter Elif
	Shafak: �In Istanbul, you understand, perhaps not intellectually
	but intuitively, that East and West are ultimately imaginary
	ideas, ones that can be de-imagined and re-imagined.�
	img
	src=\"
	http://www.craigthompsonbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/tuba.jpg\"<br
	/>alt=\"tuba.jpg\">
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