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Life was much easier when Meryem was a little girl. "Thin as a beanpole, she played with the other children" in the streets of the small Turkish village where she was born. But too soon she is forced to realize the legacy of her womanly inheritance -- swathed in thick cloth from head to toe, she is hidden away, ignored, her only purpose to serve others.

Following a violent assault by a powerful relative, Meryem is shunned by her family and is led to a barn, expected to fulfill her duty to restore her family's name. Conversely, her cousin Cemal returns a hero from the war against the Kurds. Yet it is her childhood playmate Cemal who is selected to mete out Meryem's punishment.

Miles away in Istanbul, Dr. Irfan Kurudal, a famous professor, flees his comfortable but empty life to sail across the magnificent Aegean Sea. Leaving behind a wife, a career, and decades of hard work, he doesn't know what he's searching for, only that he cannot survive if he remains in a life that feels increasingly insignificant.

Set against a backdrop and culture both foreign and mysterious, Bliss is the provocative story of three lives shattered by the constraints and contradictions of the society in which they live. In Livaneli's artfully written novel, their paths unexpectedly cross, launching each of them on a journey to freedom and a second chance. (Holiday 2006 Selection)

Publishers Weekly

The paths of three characters converge to illustrate, perhaps too patly, the conflicts of contemporary Turkey. Raped by her uncle, the sheikh, 15-year-old villager Meryem has shamed her family. To save the family name, Cemal, the sheikh's son, a soldier home from his tour fighting Kurds in the Gabar Mountains, is ordered by his father to take Meryem to Istanbul and to murder her. When Cemal and Meryem reach Istanbul, they are shocked by the cosmopolitan city, full of women wearing low-cut blouses and children who disobey their parents. Cemal falters at the moment of decision and, instead of murdering Meryem, travels with her to the seaside, where they encounter Irfan, a successful Istanbul professor who, plagued by insomnia and anxiety, has fled his cushy life to set sail in the Aegean Sea. Irfan offers them jobs on his boat and forges a tenuous mentorship with Meryem, but Cemal, whose psychological torment is richly captured early in the book, is soon reduced to a glowering presence. Livaneli, a former exile who was elected to Turkey's Parliament in 2002, takes great pains to reveal his country's complex culture, but the result often reads like a cautionary fable. Readers should prepare themselves for heavy-handed allegory. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

A writer, composer, and elected member of the Turkish parliament, Livaneli offers readers a fascinating look at the diversity of Turkey today in his American debut (Bliss was first published in 2003). The story is told from the perspective of three main characters. Cemal serves in Turkey's army, fighting the Kurds, though he hails from a village where Turks and Kurds have lived in peace for generations, often intermarrying. His younger cousin Meryam is content with the changeless village life until she is raped at 15 by Cemal's father. Irfan is a Harvard-educated professor and frequent television talking head who with his wealthy wife spends his evenings at the hottest restaurants and clubs. When Cemal returns from his service, he is charged with "taking Meryam to Istanbul"-a euphemism for murdering Meryam somewhere so that the crime is not traced back to the family. In the meantime, Irfan longs for the simple life he dreamed of as a boy and heads to sea in a rented boat. Eventually, the three characters meet, a significant event that affects them all. Highly recommended for libraries where readers like to explore other cultures.-Debbie Boggenshutz, Cincinnati State Technical & Community Coll. Lib. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Ellen BellCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information. - School Library Journal

Adult/High School
Left in the barn to hang herself as a consequence of her uncle raping her, 15-year-old Meryem defies local tradition and refuses to do it. Her cousin Cemal, recently a soldier in the army, who grew up with her in a tiny village in eastern Turkey, is sent to take her to Istanbul and is told to kill her on the way. On the train, Meryem's eyes are opened to city women who wear modern-day dress and speak and eat in front of men. Cemal cannot kill her, and after a short stay with his brother in Istanbul, he goes to a war buddy who gives them a place of temporary refuge, a fish farm on a cove in western Turkey. Here they meet a professor who has run away from his privileged life in Istanbul and is living on a large sailboat. He invites the two cousins to join him as his crew and companions. The dynamics created by this union give these three characters a new direction in which to take their lives. Teens will be drawn to the plight of a girl who has been raped and is then treated as the perpetrator of the crime. Livaneli shows village life and modern city life as two separate realities that coexist in Turkey today. Students interested in human rights and global studies will also appreciate this novel.

Kirkus Reviews

Turkey's wildly disparate and clashing cultures, from isolated Muslim fundamentalism to jaded secularism, collide in this romantic yet clear-eyed translation from a noted Turkish composer and politician, now a member of that country's Parliament. Her village family ostracizes teenage Meryem after she is raped. When her older cousin Cemal returns from fighting in the Turkish army against the Kurds, his father, the family's religious leader (and Meryem's secret rapist), orders him to take Meryem to Istanbul and make her "disappear," the typical fate of defiled village girls. Meryem innocently enjoys the journey to Istanbul, unaware of Cemal's orders. To his mortification, Cemal cannot bring himself to kill Meryem. His army buddy Selahattin, a devout Muslim and genuinely good man, shows Cemal that the Koran can be interpreted as promoting love and peace, not vengeance. Meanwhile, Irfan, a professor with a TV show and a rich wife, escapes the meaningless of his life in Istanbul by sailing the Aegean Sea in an old boat. He hires Meryem and Cemal as his crew and introduces them to modern ways. Drawn to her budding intelligence, Irfan teaches Meryem to read. As Meryem blossoms, Cemal grows resentful, yet he, too, loses his desire to return to his father's village. Tensions rise in an idyllic seaside village where they stay with a former ambassador who has withdrawn to his orange orchard to escape the ugliness he has witnessed in the world. Meryem falls in with a kind family who run a restaurant. Cemal and Irfan confront each other with truths neither wants to face. Irfan sails away after giving Meryem all his money. She goes to the restaurant full of hope, leaving Cemal to find his own way.Livaneli deftly folds his philosophical and political questioning into the psychology of his characters. Eye-opening and deeply moving-essential for anyone looking for decency in the world today.

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