One Rainy Afternoon Elif Shafak is a literary novel that describes the life-changing moment when a young woman enters Istanbul for an abortion. This compelling story highlights family bonds and hidden secrets against the backdrop of Turkish history and culture.
Summary
In Istanbul, a nineteen-year-old woman, unmarried and determined, goes into a doctor’s office on a rainy afternoon with the words: 'I need to have an abortion.' What happens that day profoundly changes her life. Twenty years later, Asya Kazanci lives with her extended family in a house made up only of women, because of a mysterious curse that makes men die young. When her Armenian-American cousin, Armanoush, arrives, hidden family stories and complex Turkish history are brought to light.
Product information
- Author: Elif Shafak
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
- Format: B-format paperback
- Publication date: 30 April 2015
- Number of pages: 368
- ISBN: 9780241972908
- Theme: Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general
- BISAC: FICTION / Literary
About the author
Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish writer, with work translated into 57 languages. Her literary body of work consists of twenty books, including fourteen novels. Shafak is internationally successful and has received several prestigious nominations, such as for the Booker Prize. Since 2025, she has been Chair of the Royal Society of Literature.