THE FLEA PALACE
This novel was short-listed for the Independent Prize for Foreign Fiction.
It was also chosen for Waterstone´s 2005 Summer Reading promotion.
Summary
Set within a once-stately apartment block in the heart of Istanbul, this novel telles the story of Bonbon Palace, built by a Russian emigre for his wife at the end of the Tsarist regime. The building is now sadţy dlapdated, flea-infested and home to ten very different individuals and families.
Shafak uses the narrative structure of A thosanda and One Nights to construct a story-within-a-story.
Some of the inhabitants of the building include Ethel, a lapsed Jew in search of true love and the sad and beautiful Blue Mistress whose personal secret is just one of many hidden within the confines of the building.
If you love Istanbul or want to know more about the city this novel will speak to your heart.
Praise
Her literary sucess and journalism mark her out as a figurehead of a next generation of writers, who use literature to reconfigure Turkish identity, and its relatonship to the country’s history.
The Independent
Shafak can switch from a picareque tale of a father and son´s broken noses to astute observations of how strangely despair and love manifest themselves without pausing. --The Guardian
A cast of wacky flat-dwellers lends it punch and pizazz.
The Independent
To Read An Extract from This Novel
An extract from The Flea Palace was first ublished in The Guardian on 24 July 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/jul/24/voicesofprotest.extract
If you want to read more on this Novel
http://www.dieiscast.com/2008/05/09/book-review-the-flea-palace/
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Elif Shafak Performs at The Moth: PEN World Voices
Elif Shafak tells a story on the them “What Went Wrong?” at The Moth at PEN World Voices, part of the 2011 PEN World Voices Festival.
&nbs...
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by Rafia Zakaria
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