Gardens of Water

Anyone turning on CNN on Good Friday 2008, sees grief stricken Italians mourning the loss of loved ones from the recent earthquake. Gardens of Water by Alan Drew suddenly drops us into the world of the Turkish earthquake of 1999, as we follow a Christian and a Muslim family making their way in a new world, trying to protect the next generation. This is an easy read. Not highly intellectual, but searingly sensitive to family honor. You will come away with a far greater understanding of Christianity and Islam, and the daily significance our religions and cultures hand to us or demand from us. And you will have new wonder about the word SAVED. Take a few days right now and read this book! It will improve your human geography skills for sure, and maybe even prepare your heart to make the next generation of your family more successful in our multicultural world!

I put this book down with a sense of loss. It was totally engrossing and believable. I can't remember a book I've enjoyed so much. I feel as if I lived through the earthquake with these characters. But no-one has mentioned how totally foreign Sinan's values are. He doesn't want the American Marcus to have the comfort of knowing how his wife died because he feels he will be indebted if the man knows his wife saved the life of Sinan's son. His boss gives him a gift of money out of sympathy for his plight and he resents him rather than being grateful, and later steals from him. This is a man whose grudges go back generations, who dispises those who help him because of his shame at needing help, who for all his love, has not taught his son about his religion, nor loved his daughter as much as his son, nor spent any time playing with his children. After the quake, he abandons his wife and children rather than trying to take care of them. His pride dictates his behavior, and though we understand the suffering of the Kurds, it has turned him into a man devoid of empathy, understanding, and compassion for others. He plunges from one action to another, ruled by his emotions, blaming others for his mistakes and rationalizing all the harm he himself has caused. Nulifer, his wife is heartless, despite her obsession with her son, passive, and unquestioning of the rules that limit her choices. She never talks with her daughter, judging her instead without any attempt at understanding, and depriving her of the love the girl clearly desires. She too blames everything on outside forces and never examines her own behavior. The Americans' behavior is inexcusable as well. These fundamentalists are doing so much harm. My husband and I have been reading books about Turkey while planning a trip there this spring, but I am coming to dislike the Turkish culture so much, we may change our destination.

It has been nine years since the deadly Turkish earthquake of 1999, and yet the upheavals described in Gardens of Water echo throughout the news of today. Sinan, a Kurdish refugee shopkeeper working to establish a life in Turkey, fights to keep Turkey's liberal secular influences from affecting his family. But then the earthquake strikes, and the Turkish influences are joined with even more Western influences in the form of an American family who gives shelter and aid to Sinan and his wife and children. One of those children, his teenaged daughter Irem, has already felt the temptations of the West as personified by Dylan, the American family's son. Thrown together in a post-earthquake refugee camp, Dylan and Irem test boundaries for both of their families. Irem is forbidden to see Dylan, confined to the family tent. "She was stained with rumors because of a kiss. But it wasn't a stupid kiss; it was everything; it was what she wanted most, the only thing that made her happy. And the walls of the tent were crowding in and her mother wouldn't shut up and she thought she would explode." Questions of honor arise... the honor of women, the honor of Kurds, the honor of Muslims, the honor of good and decent individuals caught up in a chaos beyond their control. The clash of cultures leads to tragedy, though it is a tragedy accompanied by understanding. The resonance of current events comes with the subtle examination of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict, and a more explicit description of the good intentions of American Christians and the road they pave. Sinan's father fell victim to Turkish oppression, but Sinan must acknowledge that his father provoked the oppressor. The American missionaries provide a rapid response to the disaster, bringing in desperately needed housing, food, and water, but their insistence on proselytizing and conversion brings about suspicion and even retaliation from both devout and militant Muslims in the camps. Author Alan Drew may not have set out to draw parallels, but he does draw all the difficulties faced by all of the characters with balance and care, never preaching, and understanding the conflicts he limns so well results in a deeper understanding of the conflicts we face now. The complexities of the issues are served well by Drew's talent for storytelling, and his command of language is masterful. Early on, Sinan "watched the streak of black water beyond the rooftops, and the city lights strewn around the bay like a necklace. The tea-black sky floated above him, punctured with only three stars, just three tiny pinpricks. At night in the village there were more stars than night sky, more world out there staring back than there were people in the whole of this city, probably more than there were people in all of the world's cities." The transitions between plot development and thought processes, between exterior event and interior monologues, are seamless, descriptions are lyrical yet never self-conscious or forced. If th

A terrific debut novel about a conservative Kurdish family in transition in Turkey -- geographic transition, due first to military instability and then an earthquake; and cultural transition, initially sandwiched between Islamic fundamentalists and secularists, then among Western (American) Christians. Alan Drew develops sympathetic and true characters, and his writing style, sprinkling of foreign-language terms, and evocative settings immerse the reader in 1999 Turkey (on a par with Khaled Hosseini's style). Short chapters and alternating viewpoints (a father and his 15-year-old daughter) keep the story moving, though at a leisurely pace until the final 75 pages. This novel entertained and informed me, but it also did the best thing a book can do: it inspired me to learn more -- outside of the story -- by seeking and exploring additional sources on my own. Highly recommended!

First time author Alan Drew has crafted a story that offers everything a reader could want in a novel. His prose is somehow both lush and spare - it is a story lovingly told. The exotic location backgrounds the compelling saga of a Kurdish family whose life is ruptured as a result of the massive 1999 Turkish earthquake. The brilliantly told story explores how, in stressful times, clashes of culture, religion, age and economic status can lead to unexpected consequences. The hackneyed phrase "you won't be able to put it down" surely describes my reading experience. Don't miss this stunning novel by this new author - I eagerly await his next work.