Elif Shafak: ‘I don’t have the luxury of being apolitical’
The Turkish author, now living in London, on life in the west and facing controversy at home
Elif Shafak, author
'I experienced love and hate as an writer in Turkey – you get used to that' … author Elif Shafak. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi for the Guardian
Interview by Susanna Rustin
Saturday 6 December 2014 03.00 EST
It is tempting to read Elif Shafak’s latest novel, The Architect’s Apprentice, as a love letter to Istanbul and its Ottoman past, or even a kind of apology to the city she left behind when she moved to London with her two children four years ago. The book, which Shafak wrote in English before revising its translation into Turkish, spans the era from 1546 to 1632 and tells the story of the great imperial architect Mimar Sinan, through the eyes of an invented apprentice and elephant-keeper, Jinan, who stows away from Goa as a 12-year-old to escape an evil stepfather.
More:Elif Shafak: ‘I don’t have the luxury of being apolitical’ | Books | The Guardian
