Product Description

Turkey, 1999. A devastating earthquake brings Istanbul crumbling to the ground, ripping apart the fragile stability of Sinan's world. His family home becomes a makeshift tent in a camp run by Western missionaries whom he stubbornly distrusts, and he soon finds himself struggling to protect his family's honour and values. As he becomes a helpless witness to his daughter's dangerous infatuation with a young American, Sinan takes a series of drastic decisions with unforeseeable consequences. Cultures clash, political and religious tensions mount, and Sinan's actions spiral into a powerful and heartbreaking conclusion.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #115987 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
'A powerful look at love and heartbreak' Marie Claire 'Gardens of Water is an important novel Drew explores, with respect and understanding, clashes between cultures, faiths, and generations, in an intricately woven novel Gardens of Water is a real triumph, and it introduces an exciting new writer and voice' Yiyun Li, author of A Thousand Years of Good Prayers 'A penetrating, tightly-focused novel which balances the sweetness of youth and the brooding anxieties of parenthood with a robust understanding of the Muslim-Western encounter' Leila Aboulela, author of Minaret 'A novel in which disastrous aftershocks rumble all the way through to a tragic denouement. Sensitive and thought-provoking, Gardens of Water is set in a perfectly realised Istanbul, a city where traditional and modernity grind together like the fragments of a collapsing building' New York Times Book Review

About the Author
Alan Drew graduated from the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 2004. His short fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train and elsewhere. He lived in Turkey for three years, and was there at the time of the 1999 earthquake. He lives and teaches in Cincinnati, USA.

Customer Reviews

Give It a Try - You Won't Regret It
This is not a book I would normally buy, with neither the book cover nor synopsis appealing to me. I received it through Amazon Vine and it took a few weeks before I motivated myself to start reading it but how glad I am that I made the effort.

While the backdrop for this book is racial and religious divides in Turkey, this in many ways is peripheral to the main story. No prior knowledge is required and somehow the author creates a detailed account of this region without it ever feeling forced or distracting from the main tale. The true focus is on two families and of love in its various guises. Both the Kurdish and American family in this book are entirely believable and easy to relate to. Through the six central characters the author sensitively explores the love between parent and child, between lovers, love (and jealousy) of siblings and love for God (who ever that God may be). Everyone reading this book will surely identify with at least one of these characters and recognise the joy and pain that comes from loving others.

The plot of the story kept me engrossed and guessing right to the end and I read it with surprising ease. By the end it had left a lasting impression and I it's not an overstatement to say that it is unforgettable. I would highly recommend this book to others even if the subject matter would not normally appeal. Alan Drew is a masterful story teller and I'm sure that given a chance there will be something you love about his book.

"A man gives up and anything can happen to him."
In 1999, Istanbul and its surrounding suburbs were hit by an earthquake, leaving thousands dead and causing devastation to the lives of those that survived. Among these survivors is Sinan Basioglu, a family man, a Muslim and - perhaps most significantly - a Kurd. In the aftermath of the quake, Sinan finds he has little choice but to accept the help offered to him by an American man to whom he owes his son's life, and yet distrusts inherently. So begins an extremely testing time for Sinan, as his daughter, Irem, is drawn inexorably toward the American's son, the enigmatic Dylan, while his own son, Ismail, appears to find greater solace in Christian doctrine than that of his own religion...

Gardens of Water is a highly accomplished and compelling novel. Having lived in Turkey at the time of the earthquake, author Alan Drew is obviously well-informed on his subject matter and has succeeded in creating a moving and insightful account that details the challenges, the dilemmas and the doubts of a man pushed to the brink by circumstances beyond his control. While Sinan inevitably suffers heart-break and tragedy over the course the story, his mental fortitude keeps the story moving in a manner that is both realistic and inspiring. Drew adopts a somewhat sombre tone for the telling of Sinan's story, and yet the dialogue is crisp and kinetic while his observations on the East-West divide are both revealing and incisive.

Matt Pucci

Not quite enough substance
This is a tale of love, loss, generational and cultural confrontation set against the backdrop of the Turkish earthquake of 1999. It's strongest point is the author's capacity for engaging and evocative descriptive prose; the characterization is also reasonably strong. The book's main problem is the absence of a sufficiently engaging narrative to hold the reader's attention. Strong descriptive passages thus become disjointed, and without an engaging story to connect them, the novel ultimately failed to keep this reader's attention.