Seven Houses: A Novel - Hardcover

Croutier, Alev Lytle

3.54

194 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743444132 ISBN 13: 9780743444132

Publisher: Atria, 2002

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Seven Houses chronicles the lives and secrets of four generations of remarkable women, sweeping readers from the last days of the Ottoman monarchy to Turkey's transformation into a republic. It is the saga of a silkmaking family as told through the seven houses they occupied. From a grand villa in Smyrna in the early years of the twentieth century to a silk plantation in the foothills of Mount Olympus, from a tiny house in a sleepy town to an apartment in a modern urban high-rise, the family's dwellings reflect its fortune's rise and fall as communal baths and odalisques give way to movies and cell phones.
We begin in 1910 with Esma, a young widow who defies tradition to live independently with her two young sons. Against the backdrop of World War I, her love affair with their tutor brings tragedy as well as joy in the shape of daughter Aida, whose otherworldy beauty is a source of both pleasure and hardship. There is Esma's granddaughter, Amber, whose sheltered childhood on a silk plantation undergoes a wrenching transition to urban Ankara to the beat of Elvis Presley on the transistor radio.
And then there is Nellie, Amber's American-born daughter whose return to Ismir brings the novel - and the family - full circle.

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About the Author:

Alev Lytle Croutier is the author of the novel The Palace of Tears as well as two works of nonfiction: Harem: The World Behind the Veil and Taking the Waters. A frequent lecturer on Orientalism and Women's History, Croutier has also written and directed films, including Tell Me a Riddle, based on a novella by Tillie Olsen. Born and raised in Turkey, she now lives in San Francisco and Paris.

From Publishers Weekly:

The various residences of the Ipekci family serve as the narrative framework for this ambitious second novel by Croutier, a multigenerational saga tracing a Turkish family's turbulent journey through the 20th century. In the storied Aegean city of Smyrna, young, widowed family matriarch Esma is courted by her children's tutor, Soleyman, until her older brother, Iskender Bey, forces Soleyman to flee. Grief stricken, Esma devotes herself to her sons, and particularly Cadri, who brings his willful bride, Camilla, to live at the family villa. Some years after Esma's death, Cadri and Camilla move to Iskender Bey's silk plantation with their daughter, Amber, who narrates much of the family history in a scattershot series of well-crafted, emotionally resonant scenes. The story of her own uneven upbringing-in Smyrna; on the plantation; in Ankara; in 1950s Istanbul, where her parents finally settle-alternates with the stories of beautiful Aida, Amber's aunt, who is crowned Miss Turkey by Ataterk; slick con man Rodrigo Cavallero, who dupes the Ipekcis with a scheme to grow decaffeinated coffee beans; and Hamid Bey, Camilla's one-armed soldier father. Amber emigrates to the U.S. as an adult, but the novel comes full circle when she returns to Turkey with her daughter and visits all the places she once knew. Croutier's shimmering prose integrates a heady potpourri of poetic imagery, elements of magical realism and finely honed characterizations. The overabundance of subplots and the absence of well-developed male characters hurts the narrative balance, but this represents a solid success on the heels of Croutier's more traditional debut, The Palace of Tears.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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