Three Daughters of Eve is set over an evening in contemporary Istanbul, as Peri arrives at the party and navigates the tensions that simmer in this crossroads country between East and West, religious and secular, rich and poor. A relic from a past-and a love-Peri had tried desperately to forget. As she wrestles to get it back, a photograph falls to the ground-an old Polaroid of three young women and their university professor. Peri, a married, wealthy, beautiful Turkish woman, is on her way to a dinner party at a seaside mansion in Istanbul when a beggar snatches her handbag. Three Daughters of Eve is a rich and moving story that humanizes and personalizes one of the most profound sea changes of the modern world. As the terrorist attacks come ever closer, Peri is moved to recall the scandal that tore them all apart. Their arguments about Islam and feminism find focus in the charismatic but controversial Professor Azur, who teaches divinity, but in unorthodox ways. As a young woman there, she had become friends with the charming, adventurous Shirin, a fully assimilated Iranian girl, and Mona, a devout Egyptian American. Competing in Peri’s mind, however, are the memories invoked by her almost-lost Polaroid, of the time years earlier when she was sent abroad for the first time, to attend Oxford University. Over the course of the dinner, and amidst an opulence that is surely ill begotten, terrorist attacks occur across the city.

A relic from a past–and a love–Peri had tried desperately to forget. As she wrestles to get it back, a photograph falls to the ground–an old Polaroid of three young women and their university professor.

Three daughters of eve book review