A review by tesslw
Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

Set across two timelines, between the drastically different but equally immersive cities of Oxford and Istanbul, Three Daughters of Eve offers the story of Peri; a now wealthy and comfortable mother and housewife, living in Turkey and raising her teenage daughter, whilst also reflecting back on her time studying at Oxford University, the revelations she experienced and life lessons she learned; both her triumphs and her regrets. 

Three Daughters of Eve is beautifully woven with thick strands of philosophy, theism, faith and the fear of someone questioning them all. In our modern day narrative, Peri arrives late and disheveled to a dinner party thrown for Istanbul’s own aristocracy and most revered citizens, having been mugged and attacked on the streets en route to the party. 

As a student in Oxford, some 20 years earlier, Peri takes an exclusive elective seminar simply titled ‘God’.  Taught by an elusive and charismatic but notoriously hard to please Professor, the course is designed to test the robustness of students’ beliefs and teach them to question everything. However, for some it does even more than this. 

Peri consistently struggles to balance her faith and identity with modern life - and this is also reflected in her two best friends; Shirin, who is bombastic, confident and modern, and Mona who is devout, reflective and modest. The three of them, all muslim but all with differing outlooks and approaches to their faith and lives, comprise the Three Daughters of Eve (or, in a fantastic turn of phrase by Shafak, ‘the sinner, the believer and the confused’). 

Across both timelines, this book also has some really beautiful parent-daughter moments (both mother and father), and this is something that plays strongly into Peri’s unease with her identity. Trying to find a happy medium between her mother’s inflexible following of Islam, vs her father’s laissex-faire approach to religion leaves Peri roiling with uncertainty. 
Three Daughters of Eve left me certain that I want to read more of Shafak’s novels (I already own The Bastard of Istanbul and The Island of Missing Trees so I am looking forward to picking one or both of those up soon!) 
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