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. On the cusp of her fortieth birthday, Melike is resolute: the affairs must stop. Then she receives a mysterious email from a man named Petro, requesting a tour of Istanbul’s Byzantine churches. Against her better judgement, she accepts. As soon as she sees Petro, with his endearing smile and impeccable charm, Melike knows she is in trouble. But she is not the only one keeping secrets. Petro has a hidden agenda of his own – one which, when uncovered, will not only upend Melike’s future, but alter everything she believed about her past… Set alternately between 2003 and 1974, during the Turkish Army’s invasion of Cyprus, Defne Suman’s third novel to be translated into English tells of one woman’s place in her country’s devastating history.
