Gardens of Water

Powerful, emotional, and beautifully written, Alan Drewƒ??s stunning first novel brings to life two unforgettable familiesƒ??one Kurdish, one Americanƒ??and the sacrifice and love that bind them together.

In a small town outside Istanbul, Sinan Basioglu, a devout Muslim, and his wife, Nil?¬fer, are preparing for their nine-year-old sonƒ??s coming-of-age ceremony. Their headstrong fifteen-year-old daughter, Žørem, resents the attention her brother, Ismail, receives from their parents. For her, there was no such festive observanceƒ??only the wrapping of her head in a dark scarf and strict rules that keep her hidden away from boys and her friends. But even before the night of the celebration, Žørem has started to change, to the dismay of her Kurdish father. What Sinan doesnƒ??t know is that much of her transformation is due to her secret relationship with their neighbor, Dylan, the seventeen-year-old American son of expatriate teachers.