The Silence of Scheherazade by Defne Suman (Head of Zeus)

Smyrna, 1905. Multicultured city, full of wonders. Little girl is born to a opium addicted mother. On the same day Indian spy for British Empire comes to the lush city.

Ottoman Empire is slowly falling apart. But in the meantime the reader travels in an entwined stories of four families, from different cultures.

Love, sadness, death, turmoil of decadence, luxury and finally decay and silence of the then cosmopolitan city.

Beautifully written, the reader is entirely engaged in an atmosphere and fascinating characters of the novel.

Magical read.

4/5