LAII

The
Last Apartment
in Istanbul

Now available in English

I was writing to her, so that she would know me not as this old person whose joints creaked when he rose from a chair, but as the real Pericles: the man who dreamt, deceived, envied, loved…

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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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SH

Summer Heat

Now available in paperback

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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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 raised on the island of Büyükada. She earned a Master’s degree in Sociology from Boğaziçi University and later volunteered in Thailand and Laos, where she began studying Hatha Yoga. Her popular blog—blending travel, feminism, and sociology—led to a series of published books. After moving to Oregon, she turned to fiction writing. Now based in Athens, her novels and award-winning stories have been translated into over 30 languages and are widely read around the world.

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Author photo: Asli Girgin

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