Book Reviewed- Honour, Author- Elif Shafak (@shafakelif)

So, the starting chapter itself introduces Esma-the liberal thinker daughter to Pembe Kader(pink destiny)-who happened to be twin to Jamila Yeter(enough beauty). The irony being pembe was murdered,that too by her beloved son, her canim and sultan Iskender..but was she..? As Esma further says her mother died twice, and thus a prelude to a heart warming story about the ever lasting quest between the right and wrong in terms of society. An undercurrent of emotions run throughout the story, how Adem(father to iskender,esma,yunus) was besotted with Jamila but ended up being with Pembe instead, how love was not the reason of them bearing kids but norms,rituals. The story shows the biased love for sons,the superstition of giving them the reign of one’s life as well, failing to understand their psyche and ending up as victim. Very silently the racism walks in and is found responsible for the divide in the society and the kids going astray from their destiny. This makes way for sufism,and we see how a human heart is a pressure cooker that should bake love and should concentrate on developing one’s persona, how a son convicted for his mum’s mother is seen fighting his own demons. This novel that has many characters right from naze(mother to pembe and jamila), adem(husband to pembe-a troubled soul who absconds his family for love but ends up commiting suicide on having found none), Elias(who finds love in pembe but is again made to believe that she’s dead), Jamila(the virgin mid wife-yet that was one question which couldn’t unite her with Adem), the many so called heretics and lastly my favourites yunus(the most wise and yet the youngest kid to pembe and adem) and zeeshan(a sufi mystic who though falsely accused of a crime accepts his fate as direction from Almighty to help Iskender in prison)
One cannot be totally angry with Iskender aka alex for long, he has his battles with depression, assuage and anxiety.
The fallicies of society, the battles within a household to know what love is and end up being a disaster.
My question- why if a couple is not in love brings kids on earth and then cannot groom them..?

And thus end by spoiling not only theirs but the kids life as well, but that doesn’t mean all was not well, yunus was a wise kid, he being an introvert had his own world, mag be some are God gifted, but again, the book leaves us with some very alarming questions, about love, marriage, racism, and the most unsolved mystery can love happen again..? Why a couple isn’t allowed to divorce and move ahead..? Why do people die within boundaries..? Why can’t one follow their heart…?