Here's what I wrote in 2008 about this read: "An American boy and Kurdish find love in Istanbul during the 1999 Earthquake. But it's still early days for love across these boundaries and tragedy results. It was a bit predictable, but still informative and insightful re life in Istanbul, life for Kurds in Turkey, and the Christian / Islam misunderstandings of each other." ( )

This was a last-minute impulse buy from the bestsellers section at the bookstore. I wasn't sure why I picked it up except that the cover looked so familiar to Hosseini's The Kite Runner. Similar in size, at least.

Anything Islamic seems to sell these days. Set in Istanbul, Turkey, first time writer Alan Drew's story traces the life of Sinan and his family as he struggles caused through the upheavals of an earthquake that devastates his home. Poignant, and moving, the book mainly traces richly the character of Sinan, his daughter Irem, and son Ismail.

Intriguing to me was the central theme of conflict between the Muslim Sinan and the Christian American whose wife helps his own son to live through her death. Sinan's conflict in being in debt to a country that he despises is fascinating to read through. Yet, it was not Sinan I liked the most. It was the character of Irem - her rebellion, her disdain for society's mores echoing my own beliefs.

I read the book through the night from 1:30AM to 5AM. It was worth the loss of sleep. In the end, I wanted to read more.. ( )

3.5 / 5 stars. At times the story dragged a little so I couldn't give it a 4. This book really gets your thinking about different religious views and how there really is no right or wrong....just a personal choice as to what you hold in your heart. I had a hard time wrapping my head around some choices made based on beliefs though. ( )

Well, I was 100 pages in and then lost the book for about 3 weeks. I found it under the front seat of my car (where I swear I looked before!) and am about 2/3 of the way through. Interesting story - kind of a Turkish Romeo and Juliet with Kurds and Americans, but the writing is very simplistic. A good book for YA readers.

( )

If I had only "read" this book, I would probably give it only two stars. But I had the rather different experience of listening to parts of it and reading parts of it. It is the story of a Kurdish Muslim family and its interaction with an American Christian family after an earthquake in Turkey. (The clash of cultures is the rather obvious part of the plot, but how that clash is played out is not as obvious) The reader of the audio version gave such an emotion-filled rendition of each of the character's voices that I felt like I knew each one individually and intimately. He could switch from the accented voice of the Muslim father to the teen-age slang of the American son to the anguished voice of the Muslim daughter. The parts that I actually "read" were only "so-so," but they came to life when I imagined hearing the voice of the reader. I would probably not recommend that you read this book, but I would definitely recommend that you listen to this book. And this comes from a person who very much prefers turning the page to turning up the volume. ( )

5131. Garden of Waters A Novel by Alan Drew (read 7 Mar 2014) This 2008 novel by an American who taught in Turkey is laid at the time of the 1999 Izmit earthquake, and has as its characters a Kurdish family living in the area of the earthquake and an American family trying to help the earthquake victims. But the 17-year-old son of the American family gets entangled with the 15-year-old daughter of the Kurdish family, to the horror of her parents. It is a classic problem, reminding me, I suppose illogically, of the unforgettable novel of A. J. Cronin, Hatter's Castle, which I read 19 Oct 1946. I could not help but be struck by the readiness of the Moslem parents to hate those who did not conform to their moral code, deplorable as their daughter's lapse was. ( )

Like many good books, this is a complex story with many layers and ideas. Although there were characters on all sides of these lines, they were all sympathetic and their points of view were valid and made sense. Sinan is caught between his inclinations, his fears, his faith, and the place he holds in society. In the end I think that is what I gleaned from this novel - that no one can just "be". There are always these outside pressure to be something else, to comply, to see the world from someone else's view. There is tragedy in this novel and also something approaching grace. ( )

This is a very sad story about the effect of the war and a earthquake on a Kurdish family living in Turkey. It details the customs of a religious Muslim family and how they can divide a family. ( )

A really interesting story about a Muslim family coping with life in the aftermath of an earthquake while still dealing with the lingering effects of Sadam Hussein and the PUK fallouts. On top of that they struggle with an influx of do-good American Christians who want to help the physical needs of the people but also slip in some spiritual help. For a people used to their traditions and customs, the "new" way of the Americans and their culture is mind-boggling.

The book reminds people of the unseen reprecussions evangelism can have, but also highlights what hardships befall a town devasted by a natural disaster. This is a complex novel, because family dynamics also play a huge role in the story and the characters' interactions. There's a lot here to digest. A great story. ( )

This is an adult book, but two of the main characters are teens, a Muslim girl and an American boy, who develop a relationship during a disastrous earthquake and the difficult time afterwards. A reviewer called it kind of a Turkish Romeo and Juliet with Kurds and Americans- definitely something teens might be interested in reading. It was well written and a fun way to learn about another culture. ( )

Audio review.

Powerful and beautifully written story of two families – one Kurdish, the other American -- and two faiths – Christianity and Islam – set in Istanbul, Turkey where East meets West, just after the devastating earthquake of 1999. The great themes of this novel are loss and betrayal, the collision between an agricultural tribal society with a technological urban society, and the manifestations and curses of faith and ideology – and honor.

Drew hasn’t written a small novel but a great one that tackles the major issues warring with each other throughout the Middle East and violently raised by terrorists abroad from their homelands and within them. Besides its literary fineness, it is also an example of the kind of literature that is so worthwhile it should be read by everyone.

Heartbreaking to read a story that so well highlights the gulf that exists between the lives and world of those who embrace the 20th C. in contrast to those who cling to a century far back in time. This is a tragic story that illustrates clearly that being simple, honest, moral but blinded by religion and tradition is not better than being worldly, sly, secular and skeptical of monotheism. Sorry, but some ideas are better than others, and some cultures are more civilized – and definitely better – especially if you happen to be born a woman.

Islam is not disrespected in this book but it is certainly depicted more unfavorably than in Rabih Alameddine's,The Hakawati. But that could be the difference between the Islam of the urban Egyptian vs. the Islam of the village Kurd. ( )

Sinan and his family are left homeless after a massive earthquake hits Turkey. His young son Ismail is initially thought to have died, but is found alive in the rubble. Their neighbors, an American family, were not so lucky, losing Sarah, wife to Marcus and mother of Dylan. Then Marcus and Dylan join an American relief corp running a camp and convince Sinan and family to live in the camp. Dylan and Sinan's daughter Irem become close; their illicit love is a source of family conflict and exacerbates an existing conflict between Sinan and Marcus.

Perhaps my tastes have evolved since a friend passed this book on to me. It had some promising elements but on the whole just didn't work. Dylan in particular: having lived all of his 17 years in Turkey, he was still very American (jeans, personal music player, tattoos & piercings) and prone to cultural gaffes. It also struck me as odd that Marcus and Dylan, bereaved and newly homeless themselves, would become relief workers. Wouldn't they need support as much as any Turkish family? Or does their nationality afford them some special status, uniquely able to rise above personal tragedy and help those "less fortunate"?

The novel was also very dry, and didn't generate the emotion it should have given a number of tragic plot elements. ( )

An earthquake in Turkey displaces two families who lived in the same apartment building, connecting them forever at that moment in time, yet creating an unbridgeable distance between them. In a sense, both families were already displaced when the earthquake hit. Sinan Basioglu and his family are Kurds living outside the Kurdish homeland, while Marcus Hamm and his family are Americans affiliated with an American missionary school.

The teenage romance between Sinan's daughter, Irem, and Marcus's son, Dylan, is predictably tragic. The Hamm family's effect on Sinan's young son, Ismail, is more surprising. Points of tension include Muslim and Christian, fundamentalist and moderate, East-West/Europe-Asia, American worldview vs. Middle Eastern worldview, parents and children, male and female. This novel illuminates cultural divides without imagining resolutions for them. ( )

Not my favorite. A great title wasted on a heartbreakingly depressing story. Well-written in an academic sense, but very dry and unredeeming.

Sinan, his wife Nilufer, 15-year-old daughter Irem, and 9-year-old son Ismail live in a small town outside of Istanbul. They live in an apartment building, and Sinan co-owns a small grocery store with his brother-in-law. As the book opens, the family is preparing for the coming-of-age celebration of Ismail where he will be circumcised, and life is good. Well, Irem is not content and is restless and feels that her parents love Ismail more than her, and she is somewhat correct, in that the Muslim culture does not value women as much as they value men. In an act of rebellion, Irem has befriended Dylan, a 17-year-old American boy who lives with his parents in the apartment above them. His parents are what I would call missionaries with money. After the celebration is over and everyone is asleep, a massive earthquake strikes the area devastating the town. What follows is the disintegration of two families. This is an amazing story with a close-up look at how the American and Muslim cultures clash. The ending was one shock after another that, literally, made me cry and took my breath away. Excellent book; definitely one of my favorites of the year. ( )

Seven years ago, Sinan, his wife Nilüfer, his daughter Irem, and his son Ismail moved from their village in Southeast Turkey to the larger city of Gölcük to avoid the dangers of war. Sinan and his family are Kurds and have continued to live as devout Muslims in Gölcük, but when an earthquake hits, they must move into a refugee camp run by Americans, and Irem begins to resist her father’s restrictions. The tensions between Islam and Christianity, traditional and modern, father and daughter play out as the family attempts to piece their lives back together.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. Drew tells a compelling story. The plot moves along quickly. The details about the context, the war, and the earthquake are nicely integrated with the story. And the two primary characters Sinan and Irem are complex and well-detailed. Neither is the hero, neither is the villain. They are simply a father and a daughter struggling to understand each other and to figure out how to live in a complex world.

My one complaint is that the other characters in the book were not as complex as Sinan and Irem. Both Ismail and Nilüfer are integral to the story, yet each is somewhat one-dimensional.

But overall, this is an excellent debut novel. ( )

This novel was a maddening read for me. On the one hand it is a fine piece of writing craftsmanship, deftly interweaving multiple themes, characters, and conflicts. On the other hand, it often fails at the points where it attempts to be real, or accurate, leaving the question in my mind as to whether readers who don't have the cultural, religious, and geographic background in which the novel is set are in some way deceived, or even confirmed in their prejudices.

This work is a blend of true geographical settings, historical events, and hot cultural controversies such as Muslim-Christian relations, Kurdish-Turkish relations, pro- and anti-Americanism, tradition and modernity, changing gender roles, and others, combined with a fictional plot in which the author attempts to get inside the heads of Kurdish and American players who are caught in and live these controversies. The reader must allow the author novelistic license. But if it is the author's intent at the same time to be historically, geographically, and culturally accurate--which seems to be the case here--then this book needs some serious editing.

Here are a few areas that seem deficient. The Turkish words and phrases used by the author are sometimes correct and sometimes glaringly wrong or inconsistent. He needed to have someone correct his Turkish usages, if it was his intention to be accurate. The tent city near where much of the novel takes place is some distance from Istanbul. One could not simply hop on public transport in the days following the earthquake, or even today, and arrive in the old parts of Istanbul in a few minutes. Turkey drives on the right. One cannot look down from the Bosphorus bridge to the water by driving in the far left lane, no matter which direction you go over the bridge. A real clanger: Muslims in Turkey are not buried in coffins. A Muslim girl raised traditionally would never speak of "walking down the aisle" as a way of describing a wedding.

Points like these are bothersome not simply as a matter of pedantry but because they lead me to question how well the author has understood traditional viewpoints in Turkey. He works hard to reveal the self-consciousness and mentalities of a traditional family. But if he hasn't got the external facts right, how accurate is he with these deeper matters? Is this novel really a helpful guide to the way that Kurdish people in Turkey think, or the way American expatriate Christians in Turkey think? Too often it struck me that the attempt to explain, for instance, the thoughts of a traditionally raised Kurdish young woman ends up being a back-handed critique of her life from a modern secular point of view. And so the reader who is unknowing is not helped.

The handling of description, characterization, plot, tensions, the personal within the political, and other aspects is masterful, and the author is to be commended for this achievement. The book is an undeniable page-turner and a satisfying read from many aspects. But whether it enlightens us -- as it seems to want to do -- regarding the real-life issues with which we must deal in this world is questionable. ( )

This was a very good read. The book shows some of the problems of the Middle East. One family, in particular, are at odds with everyone. They are Muslims/Kurds and are displaced refugees in Turkey. The teen-age daughter is fighting a moral battle with her Muslim values and the freedoms of the West.

It is a very insightful novel showing the problems Christians bring when they come to save the Turkish after the tremendous earthquake that brings destruction to the Turkish people.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes stories of other cultures. ( )

I loved this book. It was given to me at a library workshop. I am so glad I read it before putting into the collection. The author uses the love between two teens to highlight the struggle between Muslim and Christian cultures. Although it is a tragic tale, he shows how there can be friendship and tolerance between different cultures. ( )

enjoyed the writing, the author made me feel as if I was there. The characters were believable and shows that there's a bit of good in all of us and a bit of bad too. Young love with teens of different cultures. I liked the ending, there was no solid resolution and reminds me that we will live with the outcomes of our choices for the rest of our lives. ( )

Two teenagers falling in love, each questioning their parents' love, testing/clashing with their parents expectations and values. Two cultures/religions: American Christian vs. Kurdish Muslim. An earthquake which turns the lives of all the members of both families upside down and inside out. This is a sad story, a serious story, but also just the kind of book I like. I learned more about another culture/country. I was totally immersed in the story and didn't want to stop reading. Finally, I wavered back and forth in my sympathies and support for the beliefs and resulting actions of the various characters in this book. And I like that best of all because it really makes me question the basis for my own beliefs or values.

This audiobook tells the tale of a Kurdish family headed by Sinan. Sinan is trying to stick to the traditional Kurdish values and beliefs he was raised with, but the realities of his changing society make that difficult. Especially when his 15 year old daughter Irem becomes interested in the American teenager living in their apartment building. Sinan becomes even more conflicted when an earthquake strikes and places him and his family is a position of dependence--even indebtedness--to the Americans. He fears getting close to the Americans and yet they seem to only want to help. Can these two families from different cultures live together in peace or will their differences rip them apart?
This story is a sad commentary on what can happen because of misunderstanding upon misunderstanding. The audio production was good and the narrator did a good job bringing the middle eastern setting to life in the way he pronounced the words and such. If you like fiction that deals unflinchingly with contemporary issues than this would be a could choice for you. No happy ending is garanteed though. ( )

This is an impressive, moving novel that left me feeling rather bruised. In the aftermath of the Istanbul earthquake, Sinan Basioglu tries to hold his family together. But his nine-year-old son Ismail was traumatized by being buried in the rubble for three days (saved by the sacrifice of an American neighbor) and his seventeen-year-old daughter Irem, wounded by the knowledge that her parents do not love her as much as they love her brother, is clandestinely seeing an American boy, the neighbor’s son. Some reviews refer to this novel as a love story, but it’s not. Irem and Dylan are deeply unsuited to each other; indeed, their seems to be little attraction between them other than the lure of the forbidden. It is more a story about how difficult it is for two different cultures to interact with each other, when that interaction is fraught with troubling history and murky intentions. (Are the relief workers there to help, or to convert?) And it is about how completely trapped Irem is by the culture and family in which she has grown up. The ideas in this novel are powerful, but not encouraging. ( )

This book begins on the outskirts of Istanbul in 1999 just before a devastating earthquake strikes the area. Two families live in the same apartment building an American family Marucs and his wife and son Dylan, and a Kurdish family with two children Irem and Ismael. The lives of these two families become greatly intertwined when the American's wife dies trying to keep Ishmael safe as the earthquakes strikes. Irem on the other hand is becoming involved with the son Dylan much to the disapproval of her family. She wants more of a life that her mother has, and feels that she is not as important, and not loved as much by her father as Ishmael the son is. After the earthquake the family end up in a refugee camp where they must rely on missionaries who are Christian, and keen to impart their Christian beliefs to those in the camp. So in this book there is tension on many levels, between parents and children, between the Kurdish and American family, between the Muslims and the Christians, and within Irem herself as she is torn between the life her mother has and wanting something more but not being ready to throw away what she has. The characters and their struggles were very real to me. I enjoyed the book. It is not a feel good happy book but a real story that gave you a lot to think about This is a quote from the book that I really liked. It reminds me a bit of the Prophet on children “Our children are not ours. That is our mistake. We think they are. It seems so for awhile – but they aren’t. They never were.” ( )

In the debut novel Gardens Of Water, an earthquake, both physically and metaphorically, shatters the lives of two very different families. This collision sets the families on a path of sacrifice and pain so deep the reader is compelled to continue, hoping for happy ending, yet unable to imagine what that resolution might look like.

Sinan, a devout Kurdish Muslim, lives with his wife, teenage daughter, and young son outside the city of Istanbul. In the apartment above them lives an American Christian, Marcus, with his own wife and teenaged son. After a party celebrating Sinan’s son’s entry to manhood, a devastating earthquake strikes. The earthquake does more than destroy these two families’ homes; it destroys everything each man holds dearest.

Soon Sinan’s family is living in an American refugee camp where Marcus attempts to befriend them. What was once an innocent flirtation between the two teenagers turns into a dangerous march toward rebellion. Their story is in some ways so typical of any teen love story, yet so much more dangerous in their setting. As his daughter’s rebellion swells and his son’s nightmares unfurl, Sinan labors to gather funds in order to return his family to the unspoiled small-town of his youth. There, Sinan believes, he can protect his family from Western influences. But, as the teen lovers hover dangerously close to an edge, the tension builds like a wall of loose brick awaiting another earthquake. The reader knows it’s coming, can feel the little aftershocks; yet when the proverbial earthquake happens, the reader is devastated along with the characters left standing.

Gardens Of Water might first appear a convoluted read, but the actual reading is so smooth and well driven one forgets the multi-layered complications involved in Muslim and Christian relations. The writing is vivid and enlightening with perfectly building tension. The teen scenes are Romeo and Juliet inspired, each heartbeat quickening the tale. My favorite quote from the novel is so very poignant (especially to this empty nest Mom): “Our children are not ours. That is our mistake. We think they are. It seems so for awhile – but they aren’t. They never were.”

This story also provides an exceptional look at the American influence in the world and the Muslim desire to hold onto it’s own traditions. There are enumerable cultural perspectives and the negatives of each religion are evenly portrayed. The appendix of author conversations offers further enlightenment.

Gardens Of Water is a brilliant story to be especially enjoyed by lovers of historical fiction, or those enjoying themes of conflict between religion, culture and modern ideals, or remorse for past decisions, or the blossoming danger of forbidden love.

Review first published on Many A Quaint & Curious Volume ( )