3.5/5.
The Silence of Scheherazade is set in Smyrna (now known as Izmir) and weaves together the lives of various characters leading up to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. The first third of the book is slightly confusing with so many characters and the constant jumping back and forth between different times. However, it does start to pick up and even though I didn't fully understand exactly what was happening in certain chapters, the overarching plot was compelling enough to convince me to read on. I think the translation at times is a little bit clunky, certain phrases lack the lyrical quality of Suman's work but overall the tone is not significantly impacted.
I did really enjoy the last half of the book and it was satisfying to finally understand how the characters are linked.

I really liked this book. It was a different historical fiction book to read, set in a different time than the usual WW books. It was really well written and well developed.

This is a book with a complex narrative structure. Its story is told by Scheherazade who had been silenced by the traumatic and catastrophic events that led to the Great Fire of Smyrna, which killed and displaced tens of thousands. When she eventually breaks her silence, she weaves multiple threads into her storyline, which are not always linear in their chronology. This is made even more intricate by the fact that the true identity of the narrator will only be fully revealed as we work our way through her story. However, stay with her and you will be richly rewarded.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Smyrna - today’s Izmir – was one of the wealthiest cities of the Ottoman empire, a cosmopolitan and tolerant society. Schehezerade’s story is personal, but it is also the story of the downfall of the Ottoman empire and the role that the European powers played in it – essentially pulling the strings in the background to serve their own political interests.

The story starts to fully deepen when the lives of the main characters – and there are many of them(!)- become entwined. It is this entanglement of people from all walks of life and different cultures that allows Defne Suman to be so even-handed in her representation of the colourful and well-functioning melting pot Smyrna was at the turn of the century. One of the key scenes in the book takes place on New Year’s Eve 1921 in the enormous kitchen of one of the wealthy European families who have made a comfortable living for themselves in this part of the world. This scene represents a micro cosmos of Smyrna: Greeks, Turks and Armenians work together with their new sensitivities since the Greek takeover, whilst elegant foreigners mingle in the ballroom, enjoying their decadent celebrations. At the same time, two opposing armies of men who grew up together lay in wait for the spark that will ignite the place they all love and they all call home. As one of the main protagonists has it: ‘We are all living on borrowed time’.

This book is beautifully written, through the lives of its protagonists we experience the tragedy and the complexities of war as well as the deep traces it leaves on the human experience. It is dedicated ‘To those who have been exiled from their homeland’. The parallels to what happens in so many other parts of the world at the moment make it an even more compelling read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

There is so much to love and appreciate about this book, the writing is fantastic, the sense of time and place is wonderful, and the characters are full of depth and so varied. I learned a great deal about a piece of history I knew nothing about, which is one of the reasons I love historical fiction. The only thing I struggled with, until I understood how this format was being presented, were all the jumps in time and a large cast of characters to place during these jumps. Once I figured that out and became more familiar with the characters, it read more smoothly but really, the luscious writing, the beautiful descriptions of both a beautiful, bustling Smyrna, and then the chaos that follows, is so worth the time taken to read this book. I also feel this book would be wonderful as a reread as well, going in the second time with a better understanding of the format and already knowing the cast of characters.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5

This book was beautifully written and while not what I expected or usually pick to read, the author kept me engaged with the characters and the development.

Unfortunately,it just felt too long and too complicated. Guess it just wasn't for me.

Big thnx to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this arc in exchange of my honest opinion.

I was given this book as an ARC by NetGalley in return for an honest review.
This is an epic story of a part of history I knew nothing about. There are some wonderful characters who I quickly got invested in. The problem was that there were so many characters to keep track of. The story jumps around in time but it’s left to the reader to puzzle out where it has jumped to. Dates would certainly have helped here.
Overall, the story was a really interesting one with a satisfying conclusion, it was just a little complicated to make it a really enjoyable read.

An amazing story told so beautifully.

Defne Suman transports her readers to the beautiful town of Smyrna at a critical time in its history. The lives of her multi cultured characters become intertwined with the birth of a baby girl in 1905 and as we follow their lives you become immersed in their different cultures.

At times a hard read as the author does not hide the atrocities carried out during this period, but that adds to the realness and depth of this story.

A highly recommended novel, one of the best I have read this year.

I was give a copy of The Silence of Scheherazade by NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review.

The writing is absolutely gorgeous but it’s very dense. A bit confusing at times and I found it rather slow in places.

The Silence of Scheherazade is the complex and lyrical tale of four families living in the ancient city of Smyrna (now the modern city of Izmir), during the latter years of the Ottoman Empire. The story begins with a young woman smoking opium in a tower to allay the pains of childbirth, at the same time as a debonair Indian spy arrives by sea - his mission to spy for the British Empire. They don't yet know it, but their lives are inextricably linked.

The story then plays out across the seventeen years that follow, taking in the triumphs and tragedies of a Levantine, a Greek, a Turkish and an Armenian family - four families settled in this ancient, cosmopolitan and vibrant city whose fates intertwine until a terrible night of brutal violence elicits a blazing inferno that shatters their lives.

This is a meandering tale that moves back and forth in time, encompassing oodles of detailed history and exploring the differences between the families as it delivers a rich and evocative look at how their culture and experience define both who they are and what they become. You can almost feel yourself walking among the different quarters of the city, drinking in the sounds, smells, and myriad languages that come with a place that has a history stretching back hundreds of years - a bustling and prosperous city, at the heart of an ancient empire. But beneath the surface, there are long held allegiances that are about to lead to conflict between neighbours, as an empire with its roots in the 13th century becomes the focus of attention from more than one nation intent on staking a claim to this land in the wake of WWI.

It's fair to say that this is a book that you do have to digest slowly, because the language is elaborate, swinging between intricate descriptions of people, place and many layered history - kudos to the translator Betsy Göksel here, because this cannot have been an easy task. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, and you have to concentrate hard to keep a handle on who's who, principally when their lives touch and you find yourself looking at the same people from different points of view: it would have been very helpful to have a cast list at the front of the book, because I did find myself getting a bit lost at times.

However, I really enjoyed the way Defne Suman compares and contrasts the behaviour and customs of the different families, which not only serves to show what life is like in Smyrna, but also connects the strong female characters that anchor this tale in an intriguing way. It is the women of this story that we are really interested in - particularly Edith and Scheherazade - but you will have to read it for yourself to find out why. I would also suggest doing a little research into the history of Smyrna, as it is a book that assumes you have some idea of the political and ideological conflict that spans the course of the story, which I did not - this really helped me to understand what was happening, and took me down more than one fascinating rabbit hole.


For a story that has so much of the feeling of a fable about it, the title The Silence of Scheherazade is nothing short of brilliant. The way Suman weaves very human tales of birth, death, grief and romance rife with themes of silence, secrets, and storytelling is truly lovely, and is worthy of the famous narrator of the 1001 tales herself. This a challenging read that you have to invest time and attention in to reap the rewards, but it is certainly worth making the effort to discover its (Turkish?) delights, especially if you know very little about the history of this part of the world.

“At the heart of the Ottoman Empire, in the ancient city of Smyrna, a devastating moment determines the fates of four families.”

The story starts with the birth of Scheherazade as a British spy makes his arrival in the ancient city of Smyrna. It then snakes it’s way through the fall of the Ottoman Empire as World War One rages, the capture of the city by the Greeks in 1919, before the Turkish take control and the great fire lays claim to so much of the city in 1922.

The descriptions of the city are incredibly detailed and bring the city to life, and the horror of war is writ large throughout the book. The final quarter of the book is incredibly fast paced, gripping, and hard hitting, as the story of Scheherazade and the destruction of Smyrna comes to a crescendo.

However, prior to that I’ll confess I was a bit confused. There are so many points of views and the story jumps between timelines meaning I was getting a little lost. Not knowing the history made that more challenging. It would have helped maybe to have had at least the date at the start of each chapter to help with orientation. I was reading on a kindle so it might have been easier to follow with an actual book where you could flick back and forwards more easily.

4.5 Stars

Before reading this book, my knowledge of the Ottoman Empire, the Greek-Turkish war, and the related genocide in Asia Minor was sketchy. In <i>The Silence of Scheherazade</i> the author doesn’t focus on the minutiae of history but still gives the reader enough background in this often graphic, brutal tale that revolves around the fate of four families.

Set primarily in Smyrna (modern-day Izmir), it’s a vivid tapestry of love, friendship, struggle, survival and conflict. It’s incredibly confronting, and I was almost moved to tears by the end.

As you might expect from historical fiction, it’s true to life, and in certain parts, no gruesome detail is spared, to the point at which you wish to heaven this was entirely fictional. But don’t let that put you off. It’s based on reality, after all, and should be something of a wake-up call for humanity.

What I particularly loved about this book was the author’s beautifully rich, descriptive writing – truly a sensory delight, as well as the detail of long-since vanished customs and ancient traditions.

A wonderful read! Thoroughly recommended!

Thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Silence of Scheherazade is set during the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, in the city of Smyrna. It follows multiple characters who live in different parts of the city, from different backgrounds, as they and the city are torn apart by war and its terrible consequences. This historical setting was something I knew hardly anything about, and I think that my lack of knowledge of the history sometimes hindered my reading experience a bit, especially in the beginning. I had a bit of a slow start, because all the city names were unfamiliar to me. I was immediately grabbed by the atmospheric writing though. After a while, the story became more focused and felt clearer to me as a reader. I still struggled with the chronology of the story at times - I don't mind non-linear storytelling as long as it's done well and I thought that Suman could have been clearer at times. I thought the characters were fleshed out and felt real to me, and I enjoyed reading about them. For the most part, I enjoyed the writing, though I didn't like how the perspective would change mid-way through the paragraph - reading what one person thought of a certain situation at one point, and then switching to a different character. Overall, I thought the story was solid and the last 100 pages were definitely the best for me.

I received an ARC of this audiobook by the publisher via Netgalley in an exchange for an honest review.

Oof my heart. The Silence of Scheherazade is one of those books where you know the end before the beginning starts since it takes place during a tragic and inhumane part of history, the burning of Smyrna. And even within the first few pages you know the ending. But you don't know how the story got there. The burning of Smyrna is sadly not taught in the United States, but I'd read of it in passing in Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides (one of my favorite novels). I thought it was apart of the Armenian genocide but I believe I was partially wrong and it was part of the Greek genocide during the Greco-Turkish war. The only qualm I have with the description of the book is that it says the story is told through the intertwined stories of four families; one Greek, one Levantine (European descended families), one Turkish, and one Armenian. I don't think the story delved into the Armenian family. There is only one character who is Armenian and she's a secondary character and you never discover her fate at the end of the book.

I requested this book because I knew my knowledge of history was lacking in this area. Suman doesn't go into detail about the specific history that I've recounted above (thank you Wikipedia) but describes the years leading up to the tragic event. This is a story that it based on the circular narrative of a phoenix: birth, death, and rebirth. It's a beautiful novel with rich descriptions of the beautiful city that once existed. However, it's tragic. It's a heartbreaking story which at certain points is gruesome and barbaric and makes you lose faith in humanity. It wasn't an easy book to get through, because of the pain it caused me to read about the tragedy. I was sobbing the last 20% of the book. The story however, is beautifully told with so many perfectly timed twists and poignant moments. But don't go into this book thinking it's going to be an easy trip.

Please don't let my review dissuade you from picking up this book. It's important for us to remember these inhumane points in history, especially the ones that have happened within the last 100 years. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Never forget that humans can show great empathy for others but they can also be the cruelest of creatures.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

I am usually a very picky person when it comes to historical fiction but this story intrigued me. In the end, I found that it was a fairly solid story with an interesting concept. I enjoyed the historical aspect and the main character was wonderfully written, Suman is definitely an author whose future books I will pick up in the future for sure. I found the story to sometimes be a bit long though, there were constant descriptions of people you didn't really need but nevertheless, I think the book was wonderfully written and a good historical fiction read, especially for those not well versed in the Ottoman Empire history.

Some exquisitely beautiful writing. Richly detailed and intricate.

I enjoyed most of this book but unfortunately didn't fall in love with it. There are so many characters it's not always easy to keep track of who is who. I didn't mind the jumping about in time - that was fine - but I felt there were many inconsequential or repetitive conversations which could have been cut.

I didn't get fully to grips with any of the characters, though Edith was my favourite and I was interested in her story. I guessed the secrets while they were still being hinted at but again, this was not a problem.

It's beautifully written and informative - I learned a lot about a particular part of history I had known little about - but overall I felt it was somewhat long and long drawn out.

I didn’t love it. But I still needed to know what happened!

The setting of the novel is gorgeous, and the historical backdrop just so interesting. It’s almost like the city is also one of the characters you get very invested in.

Worth a read.

Oh. This novel. This is so far (August 19th) my favorite read of 2021. I was lucky to read an e-arc in April and didn’t stop thinking about this book since then.

The Silence of Scheherazade is set in Smyrna, a cosmopolitan city in the Ottoman Empire, at the beginning of the twentieth century. It tells the stories of different families of various cultures and backgrounds, and takes the reader on a journey through the years and historical events: the first world war, the greco-turkish war, the great fire of Smyrna, all these leading to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and birth of the city of Izmir on the ruins of Smyrna. It’s a stunning novel about love, family and fate.

This book has everything I love about historical fiction. It completely pulls you in and shows you this place, these people and events that are no more and will never be again. It’s an intricate and detailed reconstitution of a slice of history that I felt privileged to look at. Following these characters as they’re going through life with a certain naivety, while knowing that tragedy was about to strike ; knowing that this was not going to last, seeing the fateful day getting closer. I wanted to stay with these characters and accompany them to the end of their journey. I thoroughly loved the experience of reading this book, how each chapter kept me engaged. There were wonderful moments of hope and joy, despite the heavy sense of doom that permeates the entire novel.

Ultimately it’s a story about life and time, about coincidences. It reminded me of how fleeting each moment was. The Silence of Scheherazade touches on many topics and themes, and while being about a specific city at a specific time in history, it also manages to be very universal. Themes like imperialism, war and everything that entails are really at the core of the book. It tells the story of a handful of characters going through the end of an empire and the birth of a country, shows how war seeps from the higher ranks of power down to the citizens, how fear breeds hatred and turns neighbors into enemies.
The Silence of Scheherazade is a story of women, as they are the ones who carry this tale. It’s a book about female characters of different cultures and backgrounds, trying to navigate a world in which everything was built in order to make life more difficult for them. I loved following their stories, watching them interact and influence each other’s paths.

One of the many things I loved in this novel was the setting and the work that was put into recreating Smyrna. A specific attention is paid to the scenery, the descriptions, so much that I was building my own little movie in my head while I was reading. I really felt like I was entering another space. Smyrna felt like a character, and that is one thing I definitely love in fiction: locations that have so much soul that they feel like a person.
The omniscient narrator gives this story a special power. Everything in this felt grand, almost magical. At times, it was hard to know what really happened, what was romanced by the narrator, or embellished, or altered by time. It really is like listening to an elderly person telling stories of their youth. There is this special pleasure in telling the story, keeping the reader engaged and excited, while being at times very moving and at others surprisingly detached in the way the events are exposed ; a pleasure in sometimes confusing the reader in order to create more excitement. This is a book that celebrates storytellers, and I loved that.

The writing was pretty magical, with something that felt ancient, leaving me with the sensation of reading words that had been written long ago. I mean, Scheherazade is the name of one of the world’s best known and most ancient storytellers, and it really felt like The Silence of Scheherazade was written following this tradition of storytelling and oral tradition. I felt pulled in a tale that was so connected to the idea of epic poetry and ancient theatre. There is something beautifully theatrical about how this book is written and how we enter and discover each space.
It’s not only about the setting and storytelling, because the characters are just as powerful. They are strong, excessive figures, sometimes bordering on clichés, in the best way because they almost feel like archetypes. Larger than life characters for sure. I just really love stories that feature a large cast of characters from different backgrounds who end up interacting and being connected to each other. I love characters who transcend the story they’re a part of, who manage to live outside of the confines of a single book and feel like they’ve existed way before this story was written. I felt like I had met versions of these characters before, in classic literature especially, which made the whole experience really magical and gave it a kind of magnificence that I look for in my favorite historical fiction books! Each of the characters felt fully developed and tangible, but also like a complete plot device, a pawn that Defne Suman used to move the plot forward. Every one of them had a reason to be there as they all played a small part in the story, even the ones that initially looked like they were insignificant. I enjoyed seeing them take their respective places in the narrative as I got closer to the end.

Finally, I’d like to quickly talk about how beautiful the prose was, and mention Betsy Göksel who did a wonderful job translating this novel. She managed to bring it to English speaking readers while keeping the story rooted in its west asian soil. I found the pacing was near perfect for my taste, pretty fast at times while also taking the time to really create a specific atmosphere. Every chapter ends in a way that makes you want to read the next one, which is exactly what you’d expect of a novel whose narrator is called Scheherazade. It’s a book with an impressive cast of characters, all linked to each other, and a lot of going back and forth in time ; two things I absolutely love, but that can be confusing for some readers.

I’d recommend this book for people who love historical fiction and/or family sagas and multigenerational stories. This will probably stay one of my favorite reads of 2021: it feels like a slice of history, it holds so much sadness and despite the heavy sense of doom, it made me hope and smile for its characters. This novel will stay with me for a long time and I’m excited to read more of Defne Suman’s work once it gets translated.

A massive thank you to NetGalley and Head Of Zeus for this ARC!

Content warnings: war and violence (includes depiction of wounds, hunger, cruelty, torture, exile…), death (includes death of a family member), fire, rape, suicide, depression, mental illness, abuse (includes parental abuse), imprisonment, pregnancy, childbirth, stillbirth, drug use and addiction, colonialism, misogyny, ableism, racism, cheating

Exploring the intertwining fates of four families, this is a brutal yet compelling story. Readers should be warned there are numerous content warnings.

This book was wonderfully descriptive to the point where I did feel as if I was being transported to another time and place, though at times it did feel too wordy. It follows some several characters and their stories whilst still feeling a little like a piece of non fiction due to the historical element. The writing was very engaging but difficult to get through at times due to the subject matter at certain points. I also find a timeline shift a little distracting at times and more so as a digital copy but overall I really did enjoy this, certainly a time in history I've not read about previously!