Fabulous Fiction Firsts #98

Sat, 02/09/2008 - 12:39pm by muffy

Critics are calling Alan Drew's The Gardens of Water "nothing short of extraordinary".

Set in a small town outside Istanbul, it opens as Sinan Basioglu, a Kurdish shopkeeper and devout Muslim, is preparing for his nine-year-old son Ismail’s circumcision ceremony. Among the guests are their American neighbors whom Sinan begrudgingly invite at the last minute.
When disaster strikes and both families suffer indescribable losses, their lives intertwined and become interdependent. Each must find a way to look beyond their disparate cultural backgrounds and centuries-old misunderstanding to survive.

Garden is ”a remarkable work from a compelling new voice in fiction”, ~Bookreporters.com, and " A richly detailed, finely plotted demonstration of culture clash." ~Booklist.