SUMMER HEAT

Vivid evocative and tender Elif Shafak In our family secrets were buried deep like treasure never to be spoken of 1974 Melike should be happy school is shut and her parents have stopped hosting parties for their rowdy political friends But she s scared She can tell from her parents urgent whispers about prison invasion and military coups that Istanbul is changing So when the family relocate to a quaint village in the south Melike is hopeful life might get better And for a while it does But then her beloved father disappears 2003 Nearly three decades have passed and Melike has done her best to move on But despite her successful career as an art historian and a husband who adores her she has always felt a lingering discontent When she meets mysterious and extremely handsome stranger Petro Melike feels her fortunes changing But Petro isn t who he says he is And when Melike uncovers his true identity she also lays bare a lifetime of hidden pasts With a backdrop of the Turkish army s occupation of Cyprus in 1974 Summer Heat explores family secrets tangled identities and one woman s place in her country s devastating history