Three Daughters of Eve

Description

Three Daughters of Eve is a novel by Elif Shafak that explores themes of faith, identity, and the clash between secularism and religion, set against the backdrop of contemporary Turkey and its sociopolitical turmoil. The novel tightly intertwines a woman’s personal history with a question more broadly about religion and modernity.

The story follows Turkish woman Peri, who reminisces over a very glamorous dinner party in Istanbul. The story shifts among three timelines: her childhood in a polarized family, her time as a student at Oxford University, and today. Peri’s life is defined by the battle within her-the tendency of her mother to cling to her faith and the agnosticism and, some might say, militant atheism that accompanied Peri’s father. This forms a kind of backdrop for the rest of the book, an account of her voyage through faith and doubt.

Peri encounters two other females during her time at Oxford-Shirin and Mona-whom collectively she is known as the “Three Daughters of Eve.” Together, they embody three ways in which faith exists.

Shirin embodies the secular, unreligious Iranian exile; on the other hand, Mona stands for a devout Egyptian-American; that is, a religious person who conducts life according to the doctrines of her religion.
Peri, thus, being caught between, has paradoxically been confused and ambiguous about her religious stature.
It is during her time at Oxford that she becomes particularly attracted to the incendiary professor Aziz, who urges students to think through their concept of God and belief. This intellectual journey also propels a very personal investigation into her views on religion, love, and identity.

The novel intertwines personal crises with the political and social concerns of the contemporary Turkey, by tension between modernity and tradition, and societal divisions between the secular and the religious.

Three Daughters of Eve is an exploration of both personal and cultural identity in questions of faith and belonging- deep research by Shafak.