Mavi Boncuk |House of Daughters Paperback – December 20, 2016
by Engin Inel Holmstrom[1]
Paperback: 232 pages
Publisher: ArchwayPublishing (December 20, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1480838535
ISBN-13: 978-1480838536
Engin Inel Holmstrom’s second novel, House of Daughters, is a delightful adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice to 1920s Turkey. The Ottoman Empire is dying. Istanbul is occupied by the British. But all Emin Efendi can think of is marrying off his five daughters to secure their places and fortunes.
While working as a nurse, Emin Efendi’s favorite daughter Perihan meets a dashing, wounded Turkish officer, Major Murat. They’re attracted to each other, but Murat’s pride in his family’s social status prejudices their blossoming love.
In this retelling, Jane Austen’s beloved characters are taken out of the drawing room and their tale is told within the historical context of the Turkish fight for independence, birth of its new nation, and greater opportunities for women. House of Daughters should appeal to Austen’s readers as well as all those who enjoy reading novels with strong female characters.
SEE ALSO: Loveswept: A Cross-Cultural Romance of 1950s Turkey by Engin Inel Holmstrom (2011) by Engin Inel Holmstrom
Paperback: 286 pages
Publisher: Dionysus Books; 1st edition (November 14, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1937056503
ISBN-13: 978-1937056506
How long should a girl hold onto her first love? A beautiful Turkish girl, a handsome English merchant marine, a sympathetic American and a cheating husband....
Loveswept is a cross-cultural romance taking place during the social and political turmoil of 1950s Turkey where the line between state and mosque becomes blurred and American dollars flood the country. Postwar Ankara is a place of daily intrigue where corruption and romance could bring happiness and disaster. Neri is an educated young woman caught between East and West, tradition and modernity, loyalty and desire in a Muslim country undergoing great social and cultural changes. She is a woman of contradictions: innocent and traditional, yet Westernized, rebellious and ambitious who dares to seek both excitement and happiness...but at what cost?
[1] Engin Inel Holmstrom was born and raised in Turkey. She graduated from the American College for Girls in Arnavutköy, Istanbul and received her masters and doctorate degrees in Sociology from Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
Engin has over fifty professional publications, mostly dealing with higher education and public policy. She has lectured widely in the United States on issues concerning Turkish women, gender equality and Atatürk’s reforms.
Her hobby is painting. Retired now, she lives in Leesburg, Virginia with her husband and two cats.
REVIEW
“HOUSE OF DAUGHTERS is a thrilling blend of adventure, romance, and the personal courage of men and women, during the birth of the Turkish Republic of the 1920s. Exploring the British and Turkish conflict in Anatolia and written like a romantic fable with a dark side, the novel tells of high romance, honor, betrayal, and family saga, in a beautiful mash-up of classic and modern literature. Taking its framing story from Jane Austen’s PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, Engin Inel Holmstrom has given Austen’s tale a modern twist with scenes of soccer matches, gun-running, cross-cultural secrets, and nationalistic fervor in a story of new beginnings, old traditions, and the rise of the new Turkish state. A sweet delight of hushed promises undermined by the demands of family, friends, country and gender, HOUSE OF DAUGHTERS is a hybrid story drawn through the eighteenth and twentieth centuries best understood in the twenty-first century. Following her debut novel LOVESWEPT, Holmstrom’s second novel uncovers a vital history of European struggle for identity, unity, and self-determination. A proud story of unchanging human desire, conflict, and fresh hope.”
—Matt Fullerty, Author of THE KNIGHT OF NEW ORLEANS and
THE MURDERESS AND THE HANGMAN