Description

By (author) Shafak Elif

Short /annotation:
Leaving her twin sister behind, Pembe leaves Turkey for love – following her husband Adem to London. There the Topraks hope to make new lives for themselves and their children. Yet, no matter how far they travel, the traditions and beliefs the Topraks left behind stay with them – carried in the blood.

:

From Booker-shortlisted author Elif Shafak, Honour is a gripping tale of love, betrayal and clashing cultures.

”My mother died twice. I promised myself I would not let her story be forgotten”

Pembe and Adem Toprak leave Turkey for London. There they make new lives for their family. Yet the traditions and beliefs of their home come with them – carried in the blood of their children, Iskender and Esma. Trapped by past mistakes, the Toprak children find their lives torn apart and transformed by a brutal and chilling crime.

Set in Turkey and London in the 1970s, Honour explores pain and loss, loyalty and betrayal, the clash of tradition and modernity, as well as the love and heartbreak that can tear any family apart.

”One of the best writers in the world today” Hanif Kureishi

”Vivid storytelling… that explores the darkest aspects of faith and love” Sunday Telegraph

*** ELIF SHAFAK”S NEW NOVEL,
THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY
, IS AVAILABLE NOW ***

Review quote:
A powerful book; thoughtful, provoking and compassionate

Review quote:
Fascinating and gripping – a wonderful novel

Review quote:
Elif Shafak has woven with masterful care and compassion one immigrant family”s heartbreaking story – a story nurtured in the terrible silences between men and women

Review quote:
Honour is a powerful tale of family connection and heartbreak, offering us insight and delight in equal measure . . . an exquisite and deep rendering of the fullness of life.

Review quote:
[Elif Shafak] joins writers such as Hanif Kureishi, Zadie Smith, Monica Ali, Aamer Hussein, Andrea Levy, Hanan al-Shakyh and Leila Aboulela, who offer us fictional glimpses of London”s Others

Review quote:
An honour killing is at the centre of this stunning novel . . . Exotic, evocative and utterly gripping

Review quote:
Lushly and memorably magic-realist . . . This is an extraordinarily skilfully crafted and ambitious narrative

Review quote:
The book calls to mind The Color Purple in the fierceness of its engagement with male violence and its determination to see its characters to a better place. But Shafak is closer to Isabel Allende in spirit, confidence and charm. Her portrayal of Muslim cultures, both traditional and globalising, is as hopeful as it is politically sophisticated. This alone should gain her the world audience she has long deserved

Review quote:
Moving, subtle and ultimately hopeful, Honour is further proof that Shafak is the most exciting Turkish novelist to reach western readers in years

Review quote:
Vivid storytelling…that explores the darkest aspects of faith and love

Biographical note:
Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist, whose work has been translated into fifty-seven languages. The author of twenty books, fourteen of which are novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak”s previous novel, THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY, was the UK’s bestselling literary hardback novel of 2025, selling over 500,000 copies. Her work has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, amongst others, and she is currently nominated for ‘Author of the Year’ at the British Book Awards.