From one of Turkey's most acclaimed and outspoken writers comes a novel about the tangled histories of two families.In her second novel written in English, Elif Shafak confronts her country's violent past in a vivid and colorful tale set in both Turkey and the United States. At its center is the "bastard" of the title, Asya, a nineteen-year-old woman who loves Johnny Cash and the French Existentialists, and the four sisters of the Kazanci family who...

The story of the Armenians has always been one of upheaval. For the past three thousand years, waves of immigrants left their homes -- following ancient trade and pilgrimage routes, driven out by the 1915 Armenian Genocide, and fleeing countless wars, revolutions, and massacres. Despite this history of exile, today's Armenian diaspora is strong and vibrant, with over eight million Armenians living in more than eighty-five countries across the globe....

"Set in the waning years of the Cold War, a stunning debut novel about a trio of young Armenians that moves from the Soviet Union, across Europe, to Southern California, and at its center, one of the most tragic cataclysms in twentieth-century history - the Armenian Genocide - whose traumatic reverberations will have unexpected consequences on all three lives. This exuberant, wholly original novel begins in Kirovakan, Armenia, in 1971. Ruben Petrosian...

Edward, a veteran filmmaker of Armenian descent, is in Toronto shooting a film about the Siege of Van, which led to the genocide of over a million Armenian people at the hands of Turkish troops. Raffi has been sent to Turkey to shoot background footage for the film. Raffi's mother Ani, an author and historian, is also involved in the project as a consultant. As Raffi attempts to re-enter Canada with cans of exposed film, he's detained by David, a...