Gardens of Water

In 1999, in a town on the outskirts of Istanbul, Sinan Baþioðlu is caught up in everyday problems. Despite the hardships he confronts as a minority Kurd he must be a role model for his nine-year-old son Ýsmail, who is preparing for his coming-of-age ceremony. Meanwhile his teenage daughter Ýrem grows more resentful of having to help her mother run the house, cover her glorious hair beneath a headscarf, and refrain from watching Western television. But the delicate stability of this family is about to be tested in the wake of a devastating earthquake that will strip Sinan of his home and livelihood, and with them his certainty as a father, husband and man of faith. Reliant upon missionaries running the camp they now call home and morally indebted to an American whom he distrusts (and whose son Dylan exerts a frightening pull on Ýrem), Sinan becomes entangled in a series of increasingly dangerous decisions. Pushed towards a final betrayal, Sinan may yet find that everything he holds dear is destroyed, like the streets of Istanbul that lie in rubble beneath his feet. Powerful, moving and beautifully written, Alan Drew's stunning first novel brings to life two unforgettable families - one Kurdish, one American - and the sacrifice and love that bind them together.