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The Silence of Scheherazade cover art

The Silence of Scheherazade

Written by: Betsy Göksel - translator, Defne Suman
Narrated by: Lara Sawalha
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Publisher's Summary

Set in the ancient city of Smyrna, this powerful novel follows the intertwining fates of four families as their peaceful city is ripped apart by the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

On an orange-tinted evening in September 1905, Scheherazade is born to an opium-dazed mother in the ancient city of Smyrna. At the very same moment, a dashing Indian spy arrives in the harbour with a secret mission from the British Empire. He sails in to golden-hued spires and minarets, scents of fig and sycamore and the cries of street hawkers selling their wares. When he leaves, 17 years later, it will be to the heavy smell of kerosene and smoke as the city, and its people, are engulfed in flames.

But let us not rush, for much will happen between then and now. Birth, death, romance and grief are all to come as these peaceful, cosmopolitan streets are used as bargaining chips in the wake of the First World War.

Told through the intertwining fates of a Levantine, a Greek, a Turkish and an Armenian family, this unforgettable novel reveals a city, and a culture, now lost to time.

©2021 Defne Suman (P)2021 W F Howes

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Beautifully written book about a forgotten city

Beaùtifully written, narrated, and translated from the original Turkish language. Builds on the tragedy of rising nationalism in the early 20th century.

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