It is an amazing, deeply moving, and very ambitious piece of literature.
The novel spans centuries while unfolding a parallel narrative set in Ancient Mesopotamia, Victorian England, modern London, and tracking the devastating story of the Yazidis genocide in Iraq and Kurdistan over several decades. This is not just a novel based on historical research. Shafak is able to morph her literary style to sound like Scheherezade when talking about Mesopotamia, or like Dickens when describing Victorian London which is quite a feat and requires talent! The most fascinating reading for me were the pages dedicated to Victorian London and the fictional character King Arthur of the Sewers and Slums (based on the real person George Smith, the Assyriologist credited with deciphering the cuneiform tablets and especially The Epic of Gilgamesh.) But of course, there were many more parts of the novel – from the description of 19 c. Istanbul to the lifestyle of a modern tattooist in London who drinks coffee with dried lavender leaves, that bring real jouissance of reading.
Another literary feat that this novel is able to pull off is the use of the metaphor of water – in its various forms. From the single drop of water falling on Emperor Ashurbanipal’s beard to the muddy waters of the Thames and the Tigris, and the tears of the main characters (abounding), the clouds and the underground rivers burried under the cement of big cities – the story of water which has its own DNA ties together the various narratives.
This is an example how a novel can be educating, expanding one’s knowledge of the world, compassionate, as well as promoting its own political agenda but also talented, written in a way so that language becomes the device of expanding your world and allowing you to discover your own humanity. But beware, a wave of sadness descends on the reader as she progresses through the book’s pages.