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Seven Houses

A Novel

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About The Book

"An exotic and beautiful story" (Isabel Allende) chronicling the lives of four generations of remarkable women, sweeping readers from the last days of the Ottoman monarchy to Turkey's transformation into a republic and the present day backlash.

"A highly imaginitive family saga...Croutier's measured prose is artistic and sensuous" (San Francisco Chronicle) as the story of a silkmaking family iss told through the houses they occupied. From a grand villa in Smyrna in the early twentieth century to a silk plantation in the foothills of Mount Olympus, from a tiny house in a sleepy town to an apartment in a modern urban high-rise, the family's dwellings reflect its fortune's rise and fall. As communal baths and odalisques give way to movies and cell phones, four unique yet powerfully linked women experience all of life's hardships and pleasures.

About The Author

Alev Lytle Croutir is the only Turkish woman to be published in as many as twenty countries. She is the author of the novel The Palace of Tears and two works of nonfiction, Harem: The World Behind the Veil and Taking the Waters. Born and raised in Turkey, Croutier lives in San Francisco and Paris.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Washington Square Press (September 23, 2003)
  • Length: 320 pages
  • ISBN13: 9780743444149

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Raves and Reviews

San Francisco Chronicle A highly imaginative family saga...Croutier's measuered prose is artistic and sensuous.

Isabel Allende Seven Houses is an exotic and beautiful story. Alev Croutier has a rare talent for braiding history and fiction in an intricate pattern. In her writing Turkey emerges like the land of Scheherazade.

Seattle Times A superb novel!

Washington Post A lush, rich read, a satisfying weave of storytelling.

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