Honour

by Elif Shafak

First published 2011

Amazon

4.4(2,092)

Twin sisters Pembe and Jamila grow up beside the Euphrates before Pembe marries Adem and moves with him to London. Their children are raised between the expectations of their Kurdish Turkish family and the freedoms and hostilities of immigrant life. When Adem abandons the household, Pembe’s relationship with another man becomes the focus of gossip, resentment and male anxiety.

The story is narrated across generations, moving between a village childhood, 1970s London and the aftermath of a killing committed in the name of family honour. Iskender, the eldest son, mistakes control for duty while his sister Esma tries to understand how love and violence became inseparable. The novel examines migration, masculinity and the silences through which families preserve destructive customs.