Five stars for atmosphere and sense of place for sure in this richly descriptive, immersive piece of Historical Fiction, though I was less enamored of the plot.

I like the general premise of this and felt it was a well executed attempt to tell the story of the brutal end of the Ottoman Empire, though fair warning: the account of violence at the end of the book is very visceral and difficult to read. I was less fond of the personal story central to the plot, which starts out well but loses its way about halfway through the book, and really suffers from the multiple time shifts built into the structure.

The writing is beautiful and I’m a sucker for anything set in Turkey if the setting is well-rendered, and it’s gorgeously done here. This alone makes the book worth reading, and I would love to see what the author might do with a story set in Smyrna or elsewhere in Turkey in a time when political instability wasn’t such a central and necessary part of the story.

This story was not for me. While the premise sounded promising and the cover was beautiful, I was not invested in the story.

The characters weren’t well-developed, and I struggled to connect with them and distinguish between their POVs.

The pacing was also slow. For a story that's close to 500 pages, I would have wanted a storyline that sucked me in. But instead, it lost my interest.

Although I may not have been able to connect with this story, it still may appeal to others.

Note: This book was archived before I was able to download it from Netgalley but I picked up a copy from my local library.

It's 2022, so I'm trying to read as many books about Smyrna as I can! This one is naturally rife with potentially disturbing topics, so I can't possibly list every content warning at hand, but as far as literary fiction (especially on this particular topic) goes, that is to be expected. Feel free to DM me for specifications, friends, and stay safe while reading.

The Silence of Scheherazade is uncharacteristically twisty for a historical novel. I saw none of it coming. NONE. Chapter's later I'd remember clues and inconsistencies I had first thought to be editing mistakes, only to realize they were hints at a secret revealed by the bittersweet end. Defne Suman knows how to make a reader pick up a book again right after finishing it (I'm still shocked that the Greek publisher actually translated her first name, but I will probably buy the Greek edition regardless).

That being said, this work is told in non-chronological order, which greatly serves the mysterious aspect, but will drive people unfamiliar with the historical events it's centered around insane. The confusion is multiplied by a variety of POVs - all of them offering delightfully diverse insights into history, to be sure. Even for someone like me, who's been reading fiction as well as non-fiction about Smyrna since my early teens, it was hard to keep track. Unless you're Greek or Turkish (or of any non-Western nationality involved), you should probably, at the least, read the wikipedia article about the Great Fire of Smyrna before starting this book. I promise, it will make much more sense.

I was in part delighted by the English translation, mainly the parts where Turkish expressions shone through and gave a taste of the original writing - and then I was annoyed by the cursive words in a foreign language that were immediately followed by the English translation. I wish publishers would put an end to this weird custom... either the word is translatable, in which case you can simply translate - or it's not, so you should add it to the glossary. Don't go on hurting multilingual people like this.

Thank you NetGalley and Head of Zeus for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review! This book follows Scheherazade, who is born in 1905 Smyrna, when an Indian spy for the British Empire arrives in Smyrna. The story continues for many years, following many different storylines, and is a good historical fiction tale. It's obvious that the author put a lot of research into this book and it's great reading about a setting that's usually not explored. The scenery is beautifully and lyrically written, but the pacing was a bit too slow for me. I usually don't read much historical fiction, so this could be a completely personal opinion. I also found the chronology to be confusing and the side characters were a bit overwhelming. I think, overall, I might just not be the ideal reader for this story, but I'm sure a lot of people would love it!

this is not the type of book that i would usually read but when i read the summary i had to requeste it. thi book surprised me, i loved the ensemble of the characters and i found it very interesting to read about a part of history that i did not know about, the genocide of the ancient city of smyrna during the greco-turkish war. while i found enjoyed reading it, i found it very slow and confunsing at times.

This book was such a refreshing take on a genre that tends to typically only write about a few periods in time and places. I wholeheartedly cannot wait for this to release in the US so I can recommend this title to everyone that is looking for something new and exciting.