I liked some parts of this book more than others.

As a long time lover of Turkish culture and history, I loved getting more insight into everyday life in Turkey, both in the present and throughout it's tumultuous past. The strange place Turkey occupies between modernity and tradition, religion and secularism, and the Middle East and Europe, is captured wonderfully. Especially in the relationship between Peri's superstitious mother and her more modern, science-minded father. It was also surprisingly dark and gritty in parts, which gave the book an urgency I had not anticipated.

My problem, I think, was the jumping back and forth between the now and then. The "now" just couldn't hold my interest. I had to force myself not to skim read those parts to get back to the story I actually cared about. Still, a worthy read.

I really loved this book – the things it has to say and the way it says them are extraordinary.

The novel presents Peri’s struggle to find her identity – as a Muslim, a woman, a scholar and later a wife and mother. Her father has rejected Islam while her mother is a zealot so her childhood was fraught with religious turmoil, something that follows her to Oxford University and her philosophical studies. She challenges – sometimes intellectually, sometimes verbally, often in silence – the tropes of her Muslim traditions (there’s a particularly poignant scene in which her brother’s new bride must undergo a humiliating examination to prove her virginity) while maintaining a love and passion for her Turkish culture. It’s a fascinating dichotomy that’s explored in various guises throughout the book.

Istanbul is a character in this novel as much as any of the others. Shafak writes about it in beautifully vivid prose and her love for the complexities of her homeland are evident. Turkey’s geographic (the point between Europe and Asia) and political (characters discuss it’s potential to join the EU) positions run parallel to Peri’s struggles to consolidate her own identity as a Muslim in a Christian world.

The representation of Muslims in this book is broad and diverse. Shafak does not shy away from sensitive issues about the current global dialogue on Islam (she talks about 9/11, shows Muslim characters worrying about future terrorist attacks and their impact on the reputation of Muslim people, and offers scenes in which Muslim characters honestly discuss how the vilification of their culture (due to the actions of extremists) affects them ), and the novel is rich, human and strikingly contemporary as a result.

The structure of the book is compelling. It moves between the past and present smoothly, with Shafak masterfully playing with the chronology just enough to keep the reader guessing about the characters’ motives and how the plot will conclude.

Azur, the lecturer who captures the attention of Peri, Shirin and Mona, is alluring and perfectly pitched as a cool Professor whose motives are constantly shrouded by charm and intelligence. Whether he is intellectually challenging the students or sexually exploiting them is constantly debated, and Shafak subtly shifts between the two to ensure the reader is left guessing until the end.

It's deeply frightening and upsetting how politically divided society is at the moment. When different factions are so convinced about the certitude of their own ideas and beliefs conflict is inevitable. Religion continues to be at the centre of many battles, yet in her new novel Elif Shafak creates the character of A.Z.Azur, a controversial Oxford professor who encourages dialogue across religious belief systems as he believes that too many people suffer from what he calls “The Malady of Certainty”. Every term he holds a selective seminar whose sole purpose is to probe the philosophical meaning of God. However, at the centre of this story is Peri, a highly intelligent Turkish woman who is confused about what God means to her. Enrolled in this seminar alongside her are friends Shirin, a bisexual woman with an Iranian background who considers herself “as British as a treacle tart but as out of place as a stuffed date cake” and Mona, a politically-engaged woman of Egyptian descent who is an ardently devout Muslim. These three women are referred to as “the Sinner, the Believer, the Confused.” They are individuals caught in a state of flux between different nations, faiths and ideologies. Shafak creates a deeply meaningful, extremely relevant and riveting tale about the role belief plays in these modern women's lives.

The novel opens on a typical day in 2016 when Peri is living as a mother in Istanbul driving with her daughter to a high-class dinner party. It's been over fifteen years since she studied at Oxford and the life she's settled into is very different from her idealistic university years in England. She and her husband socialize with powerful businessmen (some of whom are involved in dodgy deals) and an image-conscious class of women who “paraded their handbags like trophies won in faraway battles.” When caught in traffic Peri puts her own handbag in the backseat where it's stollen by a thief. Rather than accept the loss, she decides to do something drastic about it and this sets off a chain of events that prompt her to take action in life. The narrative switches back and forth between this extraordinary day and the back story of Peri's life. It recounts the sharp ideological divides which existed in her family home between her devout mother and non-practicing father as well as her elder brother Umut who is a Marxist targeted by the government and younger brother Hakan who is an “irredeemably religious and excessively nationalistic” journalist. Endearingly, Peri escapes from the dramas of her household by voraciously reading because she “found solace in literature… Books were liberating, full of life.” This leads her to do exceedingly well in school and secure a place studying at Oxford.

At the heart of the novel is Peri's quest for answers to irresolvable questions about her identity and faith. She's haunted by a jinni or spirit in times of distress which takes the form of a child's face. There is a dark truth about her past which she can't surmount and move on from despite trying to fashion a new future at university. A dramatic event in Oxford causes her to abandon her progressive life there and settle into a more traditional role as a wife in Istanbul. This is very different from how she envisioned her life, but she's not blind to the contradictions and hypocrisy of the society around her – especially those who are zealous in their nationalism and religion. Humorously she observes that “There were plenty of people who fasted during Ramadan both to renew faith and to lose weight. The sacred dovetailed with the profane.” The inequality between men and women remains a particular concern where she wonders “Was religion an empowering force for women who otherwise had limited power in a society designed for and by men, or was it yet another tool for facilitating their submission?” Peri desires to proudly be an active part of her faith and homeland without submitting to the oppressive dictums of those in power.

It feels particularly important to read dynamic and complex portraits of Muslim women's lives right now. Considering that the US has just enforced a policy temporarily blocking border entry for anyone from specific Muslim-majority countries, reading about the perspectives of Muslim lives prevents them from becoming a faceless other. I related to a lot of the specific and general conflicts Peri faced in this story despite her background and life being so different from my own. Elif Shafak writes a wonderfully immersive story with complex, nuanced characters. Irrespective of the current political climate, this is a compelling and accomplished novel in its own right. But I particularly admire how this novel and others such as Chinelo Okparanta's “Under the Udala Trees” and Ali Smith's “Autumn” address the current political climate of their societies and artfully suggest practical ways to create dialogue between fractious groups. “Three Daughters of Eve” is an original and memorable story.

The last thing I was expecting from a novel with a blurb introducing a Turkish housewife at a party, was a campus scandal plot worthy of The Secret History.

The novel has multiple narrative strands - almost all focalised around Peri, a bright Turkish woman, at three different points through out her life, as a young girl, as a student at Oxford, and finally as a woman with daughters of her own. Peri constantly battles with her religion, her identity and most crucially to the story, God.

Her parents are both foils and facilitators for the opposing views which tear her apart. If she thought she could escape this at Oxford, she was wrong - the two friends which the reclusive Peri makes serve to replicate this. More importantly however, is Peri's involvement in the seminars of a Professor Azur - an exclusive club for which she is handpicked, centring on the exploration of 'God'.

A conflicted Peri takes the opportunity to search for answers, at great costs. We see the incongruity between the different versions of Peri at 18, and in her 30s, only being able to piece together what could have changed her slowly as more and more of the narrative is revealed.

Shafak knows exactly how to get you hooked on a plot without over-egging it, her prose was beautiful, and the extent of literary and philosophical references allowed it to be literary and clever, without ever being inaccessible. You didn't need to know Rumi to understand what was being referred to as it was always subtly laid out, allowing the reader to simply appreciate the beauty of the references. The novel doesn't force you to think about the issues it deals with - you could very easily skim these and focus on the plot, but if you want to look deeper the debates it explores are fascinating musings on feminism, ethics, philosophy, politics and religion - not to mention how these all intersect.

A wonderful exploration of what it means to be a Muslim woman - this book absolutely captures the idea that identity politics is just not that simple. It was fascinating and wonderful, and a must-read for 2017.

This novel is a reflection on times spent in Oxford as a young Muslim heritage woman, the heroine being part of a trio of women who are working and studying in the city. The factors linking them are this shared heritage, although their response to this is very different in each case, and their fascination with one tutor at their college.

We first meet the heroine as an older woman, settled, married and a mother, living in present day Istanbul. The novel moves from present day to her childhood and, most significantly, her time in Oxford.

The main theme of the novel is the response of each woman to the conflict between their heritage and the background of Oxford and an important part of this is an exploration of God, faith and love.

A really quite challenging piece that will leave you thinking and will give interesting insights into life in the modern world.

When the photograph drops from Peri’s handbag, it triggers memories of her childhood, her parents’ troubled relationship, her time studying in Oxford and the events that took place there with lasting consequences for her and others. These events are recounted in episodic fashion switching between time periods, the full picture only emerging towards the end of the novel. Peri’s encounter with the beggar also unleashes the complex feelings of uncertainty, anger, anxiety and guilt she has tried to suppress all her life, weighed down by family and society expectation: “Sometimes her own mind scared her”.

There is imaginative use of metaphors. For example, on the ambivalence of Turkey’s position on the borders of Europe - as if it “had put one foot through Europe’s doorway and tried to venture forth with all its might – only to find the opening was so narrow that, no matter how much the rest of its body wriggled and squirmed, it could not squeeze itself it.” Or, the need for the women of Istanbul, in their dress and body language, to navigate “a stormy sea swollen with drifting icebergs of masculinity...better to manoeuvre away from them, gingerly and smartly, for one never knew how much danger lay beneath the surface”.

A frequent theme is the conflict between religious belief and atheism/secularism and in particular how this featured in the modern history of Turkey. The novel does not shy away from tackling the turbulent and at times violent and repressive events in its history; the scenes following Peri’s brother’s arrest are especially unsettling. At times, the message becomes a little heavy-handed, approaching didactic. For instance, the dinner party in Istanbul seems really to be a device to include a debate on contemporary Turkey. The other dinner party guests are not named but referred to by their occupation and appear to be there to represent the various ideological viewpoints.

Through Peri’s perpetual uncertainty and Professor Aziz’s lectures, the author poses the question how any person can be certain of the superiority of their beliefs, particularly if they have limited knowledge of other cultures and philosophies? A dialectical approach is evident through the frequent use of oppositions. For example, Peri’s parents inhabit each side of the religion versus atheism/secularism argument. To some extent, Mona and Shirin (who along with Peri make up the “Daughters of Eve”) mirror Peri’s mother and father, with Peri perpetually in the middle. In fact, Peri describes herself and her friends as “the Sinner, the Believer, the Confused”. In spite of the title, only two of the “Daughters of Eve” - Peri and Shirin - seem fully developed characters; Mona is something of a cipher, merely there to represent the devout and to provide an opposite to Shirin.

Despite some reservations, I enjoyed the book, particularly the sections covering Peri’s childhood. At times, bordering on the didactic, it engages with debates which have contemporary relevance for the wider world.

I was given a free copy of this novel by Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Three young women, Muslim of origin, but hugely different in character and belief - "Peri the confused, Shirin the sinner and Mona the believer" - attend Oxford University at the turn of the Millennium. In the present day, Peri, who now lives in Istanbul having married and raised a family in her home town, is mugged and a Polaroid photo falls from her wallet violently bringing back to her conscious attention the guilt she has been struggling with regarding a decision she made a decade and a half ago, a decision that had huge consequences for herself and others. Coming from a deeply divided family - her mother and one brother are fervently religious and her father and other brother secularists - Peri has always found herself torn between the two sides, stuck in the middle, drowning in guilt at not being able to make both her parents happy. It is in an attempt to address her ambivalent feelings towards God and religion, that Peri opts to attend Oxford and take a seminar with a famed professor known for challenging his students’ every assumption about themselves and their beliefs. This sets in motion events that have haunted Peri ever since.

Written by the much lauded author Elif Shafak, Three Daughters of Eve is a beautifully written novel, addressing issues of identity, religion, diversity and women's rights. Shafak’s novels are always hugely powerful – The Bastard of Istanbul is a stand-out novel. Three Daughters of Eve is a wonderful melding of East and West, of different cultures and ideals. The characters are a treat to get to know and the philosophical discussion adds an extra level to an already interesting story. This is an absolute gem of a novel.