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The Silence of Scheherazade

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The Silence of Scheherazade

By: Betsy Göksel - translator, Defne Suman
Narrated by: Lara Sawalha
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About this listen

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 20th Century Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Romance World War I Imperialism
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I liked the complexity and non linear tale, like looking through an old photograph album where all the pictures have been misplaced. As with other readers this was a history I was unfamiliar with, but it mirrors so many events old and recent of displacement and division, orchestrated by big powers. The inhumanity is shocking as is the resilience and humanity in the face of terror. An impactful book on many levels.

Interlacing of people, places and time in a forgotten history

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This is my third experience of this wonderful book. Twice read and not listened too. It took me a little while to get used to the narration as I had imagined our protagonist’s voice differently, but in the end I was not dissaponted.

I loved it again!

Defne Suman captures the magic of the wonderful city of Smyma, the brutal heartache of war, and the layerd complexities of the poeple that live through it.

Just beautiful!

Beautiful Masterpiece

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The performance let it down. Phrasing and pronunciation so poor that it frequently made a wonderful story difficult and frustrating to listen to.

Wonderfully braided narrative, full of sensory detail

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