For Leila, each minute after her death recalls a sensuous memory: spiced goat stew, sacrificed by her father to celebrate the birth of a yearned-for son; bubbling vats of lemon and sugar to wax women’s legs while men are at prayer; the cardamom coffee she shares with a handsome student in the brothel where she works. Each fading memory brings back the friends she made in her bittersweet life – friends who are now desperately trying to find her . . .
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Another book recommendation from a bookseller in my local Waterstones and I wasn’t disappointed. You will have noticed that I tend to have specific genres/authors which I read, and read a lot, but I’m always up for trying a new book and this one took me by surprise.
This won’t be a very long review but I feel it’s an important book to read and very powerful, so I will at least try and organise my thoughts on it below.
I wasn’t aware of who Elif Shafak was when I started reading this book or writing this review, but after doing a little bit of searching it is clear that she is very much an advocate for women’s rights and highlights women’s plights throughout her book.
Leila is dead, she has been murdered and left inside a rubbish bin in Istanbul, and as her mind shuts down we relive key moments in her life, moments that have stuck with her and she recalls in her final minutes. From her childhood growing up to gaining the name ‘Tequila Leila’ we are with her throughout and see how hard and difficult a life like this must be.
We see her struggles, from a father who doesn’t know how to cope to a marriage where she is not valued, until she eventually runs away, becomes a prostitute and finds her true the family, a family that will support her regardless – her friends.
Friendship is a key part of this novel, and while the saying goes that ‘you can choose your friends and not your family,’ sometimes your family chooses you. While the first part of the novel focuses on Leila’s life and her dying memories, part two focuses on her friends and the lengths they will go to to ensure that she receives what she deserves.
I can’t begin to comment on the women’s rights and political statements in the novel as, to be honest, I’m not well versed in it to make comments. But what I can say is that there is a lot to unpack here, whether you’re a layman like me to a woman’s situation in Turkey or if you knowledgeable about it, there’s something to be gained from reading it, even if it just empathy or a desire to know more.
This is simply a beautiful and poignant book with a much deeper message at play. Shafak’s writing is sublime, with each sentence drawing you in and engulfing you into the novel. It’s hard to come up for breath when you start.
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