SH

Summer Heat

Now Available in English

Melike has it all: a beautiful home in Istanbul, a career as an art historian, an attentive husband. But her yearning for more excitement has led her surreptitiously into the arms of other men.

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ATBT

At the
Breakfast Table

Now available in paperback

Buyukada Island, Turkey, 2017. In the glow of a late summer morning, family gather for the 100th birthday of the famous artist Sirin Saka...

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SoS

The
Silence of
Scheherazade

Now available in all formats

On an orange-tinted evening in September 1905, Scheherazade is born to an opium-dazed mother in the ancient city of Smyrna...

The Silence of Scheherazade that was cherished so much by its readers in Turkey and Greece is now available in English with Betsy Göksel’s meticulous translation!

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Praise for Defne’s latest releases

Suman’s tale is at its heart about those small people living their daily lives within the city, loving each other and loving the land beneath them.
—Laurel Taylor, Asymptote
(on The Silence of Scheherazade)
It is very easy for Greek readers to love Suman, to identify with her heroes, to look for their own ancestral memories among the memories of her heroes. But the most important thing about a novel is that it hides a beautiful story, and the author knows how to tell it.
—Erika Athanasiou
(on At the Breakfast Table)
When Smyrna was reduced to ashes in September 1922, the world lost one of its most beautifully cosmopolitan cities. [It is] brought back to life in all its glory in this rich tale of love and loss, giving voice to the silenced, and music to their histories.
—Maureen Freely, chair of PEN, UK
(on The Silence of Scheherazade)
Defne Suman brings lightness to the hearts of her readers as the characters of At the Breakfast Table reclaim their identity and freedom from the burden of family secrets and the false pretense of living as if no sin has been committed in this land.
—Yaprak Cetinkaya, Pozitif Magazine
(on At the Breakfast Table)
I am honored to be a part of the publication of Defne’s book, which portrays the bonds of humanity and love between faiths, nations, ethnic minorities, in English.
—Betsy Göksel, translator
(on The Silence of Scheherazade)
Suman listens and understands a wounded geography with an open heart—a trait that is rarely found among Turkish intellectuals. She challenges the common belief and narrates beautifully.
—Derya Beyatli, Yeni Duzen Newspaper
(on At the Breakfast Table)

About

Defne Suman was born in Istanbul and grew up on Büyükada. She gained a Masters in sociology from the Boğaziçi University and then worked as a teacher in Thailand and Laos, where she studied Hatha Yoga and stayed in Buddhist monasteries. She later continued her studies in Oregon, USA and now lives in Athens with her husband. The Silence of Scheherazade was first published in Turkey and Greece in 2016 and is her English language debut. Her novels and short stories are translated into many languages and are available all around the world. Her second novel, At The Breakfast Table, became available in English in September 2022.

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Author photo: Asli Girgin

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