Set in Istanbul, this novel tells the story of Meral, a modern-day Turkish woman searching for identity and renewal after leaving her husband of 11 years and realizing for the first time her part-Armenian heritage.
The ferry that plies the Bosporus between the Asian and European shores of Turkey is the physical and metaphoric nexus of Shami’s first novel, set in modern Istanbul. En route to meet the lawyer who is handling her divorce, Meral Demiray pauses to read from her deceased mother’s diary, a painful account of Armenian heritage that reappears throughout Shami’s novel. On the ferry, Meral encounters Dr. Zeki, whose loneliness overwhelms her own and she agrees to visit him. After one awkward visit to Dr. Zeki and his reclusive brother-in-law Orhan, Meral retreats to “normal life,” organizing exhibitions with the ladies of the Fine Arts Committee.