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YEREVAN, MAY 21, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian presentation of "Bastard of Istanbul" by Elif Şafak will be held on May 30.
The author of the Armenian translation of the book, American-Armenian literary critic Maro Madoyan-Alajanyan stated this at the press conference held on May 21. As reports "Armenpress" Maro Madoyan-Alajanyan underscored: "Elif Şafak must be known to the Armenian society. Her novel is dedicated to the consequences of the Genocide. She implemented finest contemporary style. This is her second novel in English language."
Şafak has left Turkey, she is hiding now because of continuous persecutions initiated against her by the Turkish extremists.
Elif Şafak was born in 1971, in Strasbourg, France. She is one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary literature in both Turkish and English. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages, and she was awarded the honorary distinction of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.
Elif Şafak has published twelve books, eight of which are novels.
Şafak's first novel, Pinhan (The Mystic) was awarded the Rumi Prize in 1998, which is given to the best work in mystical literature in Turkey. Her second novel, Şehrin Aynaları (Mirrors of the City), focuses on a family of Jewish conversos in 17th century Spain and Ottoman Empire, bringing together Jewish and Islamic mysticism against a historical setting. Şafak's next novel Mahrem (The Gaze), earned her the Union of Turkish Writers' Prize in 2000. Imbued with fantastic elements and satire, the novel tells an unusual love story between an overweight woman and her lover, a dwarf. The following novel, Bit Palas (The Flea Palace), was a bestseller in Turkey and was shortlisted for Independent Best Foreign Fiction in 2005. The book was followed by Med-Cezir, a non-fiction book of essays on gender, sexuality, mental ghettoes, and literature.
Şafak's first novel to be written in English, The Saint of Incipient Insanities, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2004. Her second novel in English, The Bastard of Istanbul, was the bestselling book of 2006 in Turkey and was longlisted for the Orange prize. The novel, which tells the story of an Armenian and a Turkish family through the eyes of women resulted in charges being brought against Şafak for "insulting Turkishness" under Article 301, but the charges were subsequently dismissed.
Şafak then published Black Milk, a memoir on motherhood, writing and creativity. “The “black milk” of the title refers to the conflict she felt between her roles as a writer and mother—her fears that she could not meet the demands of both simultaneously—and nearly year-long bout of postpartum depression she suffered.”
Her eighth novel, Honour, released in Turkey in July 2011 and published by Penguin in the UK in April 2012, is set in London in the 1970s and concerns the experiences of a half-Kurdish, half-Turkish immigrant family.