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Clash of cultures creates a tremor.


Byline: SARA Sara or Sarah, in the Bible, wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac. With Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah, she was one of the four Hebrew matriarchs. Her name was originally Sarai [Heb.,=princess].  HORTON

Semi-crippled Sinan ekes out a living in Istanbul, his only goal to lead a respectable life and to care for his wife and two children.

However, his disability is compounded by the fact that he is a Kurd, which makes life more difficult than it should be.

He is a proud man but a fish out of water and his fragile identity is even more threatened by the Americans who live in his block of flats.

He would like to be a Kurd in an independent Kurdistan and he sees his home as an oasis in Istanbul, but the neighbours are determined to encroach encroach v. to build a structure which is in whole or in part across the property line of another's real property. This may occur due to incorrect surveys, guesses or miscalculations by builders and/or owners when erecting a building.  on his family by extending an unwelcome hand of friendship.

Meanwhile his daughter Irem is nurturing a fledgling romance with the American teenager upstairs, alongside a deep-seated resentment of her father.

She is all too aware of his love for her little brother and his lack of attention to her.

It's a volatile situation, which explodes when a devastating dev·as·tate  
tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates
1. To lay waste; destroy.

2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark.
 earthquake hits the city.

Sinan loses what little he has and is eventually forced to overcome his pride to accept the charity of others.

More importantly the quake itself links his family inextricably in·ex·tri·ca·ble  
adj.
1.
a. So intricate or entangled as to make escape impossible: an inextricable maze; an inextricable web of deceit.

b.
 with the Americans, a link which leads to tragedy.

This is a powerful book, which thoroughly explores a clash of civilisations, perspectives and religions through the eyes of two families.

It's also beautifully written, conjuring up vivid images Vivid Image is a firm specializing in web design, online advertising and software services for a range of FTSE 100 and Global 1000 companies.

Founded by Philip Warner in 1997, Vivid Image was joined by Damian Kimmelman in 2005.
 of Turkey, both before and after the earthquake of 1999.

The characters are sadly all too convincing, the sequence of events all too believable be·liev·a·ble  
adj.
Capable of eliciting belief or trust. See Synonyms at plausible.



be·lieva·bil
 and the conclusions Drew comes to are unsettling un·set·tle  
v. un·set·tled, un·set·tling, un·set·tles

v.tr.
1. To displace from a settled condition; disrupt.

2. To make uneasy; disturb.

v.intr.
.

However, the combination makes for a book well worth reading.

Gardens of Water is available in Bahrain bookshops, priced about BD4.

Copyright 2009 Gulf Daily News

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COPYRIGHT 2009 Al Bawaba (Middle East) Ltd.
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2009 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

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Publication:Gulf Daily News (Manama, Bahrain)
Date:Oct 18, 2009
Words:303
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