Istanbul's Fractured Spring

In 2016 Istanbul, Peri Nalbantoğlu, a respected wife and mother, is caught in the city's infamous traffic with her rebellious daughter Deniz. The city's chaos mirrors Peri's internal unrest—a life lived by others' expectations, stitched together by the roles of dutiful daughter, wife, and mother. As they head to a dinner party, a chance encounter with street children and a violent mugging shatters Peri's composure, forcing her to confront the void within and the darkness she's long denied. Istanbul's relentless expansion and social contradictions set the stage for a story of identity, faith, and the search for meaning.

The Good Daughter's Mask

Growing up in a divided household, Peri is the cherished youngest child, caught between her secular, Atatürk-worshipping father Mensur and her devout, superstitious mother Selma. Their marriage is a battleground of ideology—reason versus faith—leaving Peri paralyzed by the demand to choose sides. Her brothers, one a Marxist, the other a nationalist, further polarize the family. Peri's early years are marked by compliance and a desperate desire to please, but also by a growing sense of alienation and a secret, mystical fear: visions of a "baby in the mist" that neither parent can explain or accept.

Family Wars and Faith

The family's fragile peace is shattered when Peri's beloved brother Umut is arrested and tortured for leftist activism. The event deepens the rift between her parents and leaves Peri with a sense of guilt and helplessness. She turns her anger and confusion toward God, questioning divine justice and the meaning of suffering. Her father encourages skepticism and education, her mother clings to ritual and purity. Peri's spiritual struggle becomes a lifelong quest, recorded in a diary her father gives her—a place to write, erase, and rewrite her understanding of God.

The Stolen Handbag

In the present, Peri's handbag is stolen by street children, leading her into a dangerous alley where she confronts a glue-addicted tramp. The encounter turns violent, and Peri is forced to defend herself, nearly becoming both victim and perpetrator. The incident reawakens memories of her past—her family's traumas, her own suppressed rage, and the mystical "baby in the mist" that has haunted her since childhood. The loss of a Polaroid photo from her Oxford days becomes a symbol of the unresolved past she carries.

Ghosts and Guilt

Peri's mystical experiences—her visions of the "baby in the mist"—are dismissed by her rational father and pathologized by her mother, who seeks an exorcist. Peri learns to hide her strangeness, internalizing shame and guilt, especially after a childhood tragedy involving her twin brother's death. The family's wounds fester: her father's drinking, her mother's obsessive religiosity, her brother's trauma. Peri's sense of being "prone to darkness" becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, shaping her relationships and her inability to choose between faith and doubt.

The Three Daughters Meet

Winning a place at Oxford, Peri escapes Istanbul's suffocating expectations. There, she meets two women who will define her journey: Mona, the devout Egyptian-American "Believer," and Shirin, the rebellious, secular Iranian-British "Sinner." Peri, the "Confused," is drawn to both but belongs to neither camp. The three become housemates, their friendship a microcosm of the East-West, faith-secularism, tradition-modernity tensions that define their generation. Their debates are passionate, their differences irreconcilable, yet their bond is forged in shared exile and longing.

Oxford: Circles of Belief

Peri is drawn to a legendary seminar on God led by Professor Azur, a charismatic and controversial figure. The class is a circle—literally and metaphorically—where students from diverse backgrounds debate the nature of God, faith, and doubt. Azur's method is provocative: he pushes students to confront their assumptions, to embrace uncertainty, and to see themselves in the "Other." The seminar becomes a crucible for Peri's spiritual and intellectual awakening, but also for rivalry, jealousy, and the seeds of future betrayal.

The Professor's Game

Azur's teaching blurs the boundaries between philosophy and life, teacher and student. He orchestrates social experiments, pairing students with their opposites, forcing them to confront their prejudices. Peri is both fascinated and unsettled by him, developing a crush that is part intellectual longing, part emotional need. Azur's relationships with his students—especially Shirin—are ambiguous, raising questions of ethics and power. The seminar's promise of a "third path" between faith and doubt becomes entangled with personal desires and the dangers of idealizing authority.

Love, Doubt, and Betrayal

Peri's infatuation with Azur intensifies, complicated by her friendship with Shirin and Mona. She discovers that Azur and Shirin are lovers, a revelation that devastates her and triggers a spiral of self-doubt and despair. Feeling used and excluded, Peri attempts suicide, an act that becomes the catalyst for a scandal that destroys Azur's career. In the ensuing investigation, Peri is paralyzed by indecision and guilt, unable to speak the truth that could exonerate Azur. Her silence is both a betrayal of him and of herself.

The House in Jericho

The three women share a house in Oxford's Jericho district, their differences magnified by proximity. Shirin and Mona's ideological battles—over Islam, feminism, identity—leave Peri caught in the middle, unable to take sides. The house becomes a laboratory for Azur's theories, but also a site of emotional exhaustion and disillusionment. Peri's passivity, her inability to choose or act, becomes her defining flaw, echoing the childhood trauma of her brother's death and her lifelong fear of disappointing others.

The Scandal Unfolds

The scandal surrounding Azur's relationships with students erupts, fueled by jealousy, gossip, and institutional politics. Peri's suicide attempt is misinterpreted as evidence of an affair, and Azur is forced to resign in disgrace. The circle of seekers is shattered; friendships dissolve in bitterness and regret. Peri returns to Istanbul, abandoning her academic ambitions and burying her past. Azur retreats into isolation, his reputation ruined but his intellectual legacy enduring. The promise of the "third path" is left unfulfilled, a casualty of human frailty.

The Weight of Silence

Years later, Peri is a wife and mother in Istanbul, outwardly successful but inwardly haunted by what she left unsaid and undone. Her relationship with her daughter Deniz is strained, echoing the generational conflicts of her own childhood. The city's political and social turmoil mirrors her internal unrest. A dinner party at a wealthy friend's mansion becomes the stage for a violent home invasion, forcing Peri to confront her fears, her guilt, and the unfinished business of her youth.

Istanbul's Night of Violence

As armed men take the dinner guests hostage, Peri hides in a wardrobe, clutching her husband's phone. The terror of the moment collapses time, bringing her face to face with the ghosts of her past—her family's traumas, her lost love, her own failures. In the darkness, she reaches out to Azur, now a disgraced but celebrated writer in Oxford, seeking forgiveness and closure. The crisis becomes a crucible, forcing Peri to choose between silence and speech, fear and action.

The Wardrobe and the Call

In the wardrobe, Peri calls Azur for the first time in fourteen years. Their conversation is a reckoning: apologies, confessions, and the acknowledgment of mutual wounds. Peri admits her role in his downfall, her inability to act, her lifelong confusion. Azur, too, confesses his regrets and the limits of his own wisdom. The call is interrupted by the chaos outside, but its emotional impact is transformative—a moment of connection, forgiveness, and the possibility of healing.

Forgiveness in the Dark

As the police arrive and the siege ends, Peri emerges from the wardrobe changed. She has faced her fears, spoken her truth, and found a measure of peace. The circle of her life—faith and doubt, love and loss, East and West—remains unclosed, but she is no longer paralyzed by indecision. The past cannot be rewritten, but its hold can be loosened. In the darkness, Peri discovers the courage to forgive herself and to accept the ambiguity that has always defined her.

The Circle Remains

The novel ends with the recognition that the questions of faith, identity, and belonging are never fully resolved. Peri, like Istanbul itself, remains a "land of between"—a place of contradictions, hybridity, and perpetual searching. The circle of seekers, though broken, endures in memory and in the ongoing struggle to find a "third path." The story is not one of answers, but of the courage to live with uncertainty, to keep asking, and to keep loving in spite of it all.

Characters

Peri Nalbantoğlu

Peri is the novel's protagonist, a Turkish woman shaped by the ideological war between her secular father and religious mother. Her childhood is marked by compliance, trauma, and mystical visions she cannot share. At Oxford, she is the "Confused" among the three daughters of Eve, torn between faith and doubt, East and West, belonging and exile. Her passivity and fear of disappointing others lead to her greatest betrayal—her silence during the scandal that destroys her beloved professor. As an adult, she is a wife and mother, outwardly successful but inwardly fractured, haunted by guilt and the unresolved questions of her youth. Her journey is one of self-forgiveness and the acceptance of ambiguity.

Professor Azur

Azur is a brilliant, controversial Oxford professor whose seminar on God attracts seekers from across the world. He is both inspiring and dangerous, pushing students to confront their deepest beliefs and prejudices. His teaching blurs the line between philosophy and life, and his relationships with students—especially Shirin—are ethically ambiguous. Azur's own past is marked by loss, guilt, and a failed marriage. His downfall is precipitated by the very passion and risk-taking that make him a great teacher. In exile, he becomes a celebrated writer but remains haunted by disgrace and regret.

Shirin

Shirin is an Iranian-British student, fiercely secular, rebellious, and unapologetically herself. She is the "Sinner" among the three daughters, allergic to dogma and tradition, and often at odds with Mona. Her relationship with Azur is both empowering and destructive, blurring the boundaries between student and lover. Shirin's bravado masks deep wounds—exile, family trauma, and the struggle to belong. She is both Peri's friend and rival, a catalyst for conflict and growth.

Mona

Mona is an Egyptian-American student, the "Believer" of the trio. She wears the hijab by choice, is passionate about feminism and social justice, and seeks to reconcile faith with modernity. Mona's confidence and activism contrast with Peri's confusion and Shirin's cynicism. She is often the voice of reason and compassion, but also struggles with loneliness and the burden of representing her faith in a hostile world. Her friendship with Peri and Shirin is both a source of strength and a site of conflict.

Mensur

Peri's father, Mensur, is a ship's engineer and staunch secularist, devoted to Atatürk and Western values. His marriage to Selma is a battleground of ideology, and his relationship with Peri is one of deep affection and high expectations. Mensur's drinking and eventual decline mirror the disillusionment of Turkey's secular elite. He encourages Peri's education and skepticism but is ultimately unable to protect her from the family's traumas.

Selma

Selma is Peri's mother, a devout Muslim whose faith becomes increasingly rigid under the influence of a local preacher. Her obsession with purity and ritual is both a shield and a prison, alienating her from her husband and children. Selma's love for Peri is complicated by guilt and blame, especially after the death of Peri's twin brother. She represents the anxieties and contradictions of Turkey's religious revival.

Umut

Peri's older brother, Umut, is a Marxist activist whose arrest and torture by the Turkish state shatter the family. His suffering becomes a symbol of the country's political violence and the cost of dissent. Umut's silence and withdrawal haunt Peri, fueling her sense of guilt and her anger at God.

Hakan

Peri's other brother, Hakan, is drawn to nationalism and religious conservatism, siding with their mother. His marriage is marred by suspicion and violence, reflecting the toxic masculinity and social pressures of contemporary Turkey. Hakan's relationship with Peri is distant and fraught.

Troy

Troy is an Oxford student who becomes obsessed with Azur, first as a disciple, then as an enemy. His jealousy and sense of exclusion drive him to expose Azur's relationships with students, triggering the scandal that ends Azur's career. Troy embodies the dangers of wounded pride and the destructive power of resentment.

Adnan

Adnan is Peri's husband, a self-made businessman who provides stability and affection. He is religious but moderate, supportive but sometimes distant. Their marriage is marked by mutual respect but lacks the passion and intellectual connection Peri once sought. Adnan represents the compromises and comforts of adulthood, as well as the limits of love without understanding.

Plot Devices

Dual Timelines and Mirrored Structure

The novel alternates between Peri's present in Istanbul and her past at Oxford, using the structure of a dinner party and a home invasion to trigger memories and force confrontations with the past. The mirrored structure—family conflicts in Istanbul, ideological battles at Oxford—highlights the persistence of unresolved trauma and the cyclical nature of Peri's struggles.

The Circle and the Third Path

Professor Azur's seminar is both a literal and symbolic circle, bringing together students of diverse backgrounds to debate God, faith, and doubt. The "third path" he advocates—a space between certainty and skepticism—becomes the novel's central philosophical quest. The circle is also a site of manipulation, rivalry, and betrayal, reflecting the difficulty of true dialogue and the dangers of idealizing authority.

The Baby in the Mist

Peri's recurring visions of a "baby in the mist" function as a psychological and symbolic device, representing her unresolved guilt, her sense of being "prone to darkness," and the ambiguity that defines her life. The visions blur the boundaries between reality and imagination, faith and madness, and serve as a reminder of the limits of reason and the persistence of the unknown.

Foreshadowing and Repetition

Events in Peri's childhood—her brother's death, her family's conflicts, her mystical experiences—are echoed in her adult life, foreshadowing the crises she faces in Istanbul. The repetition of patterns—passivity, silence, the inability to choose—underscores the difficulty of breaking free from the past and the necessity of confronting one's own role in perpetuating harm.

The Stolen Handbag and the Polaroid

The theft of Peri's handbag and the loss of a Polaroid photo from her Oxford days serve as catalysts for the novel's central journey. These objects symbolize the unresolved past, the fragility of identity, and the longing for connection. Their recovery and loss mirror Peri's struggle to reclaim her story and to accept the ambiguity of her life.

Analysis

Three Daughters of Eve is a profound meditation on the tensions between faith and doubt, East and West, tradition and modernity, belonging and exile. Through the intertwined stories of Peri, Mona, and Shirin, Elif Shafak explores the complexities of identity in a world marked by polarization and the longing for certainty. The novel rejects easy answers, instead embracing the "third path"—a space of questioning, hybridity, and perpetual searching. Peri's journey is one of self-forgiveness and the acceptance of ambiguity, a recognition that the most important questions—about God, love, and meaning—cannot be resolved, only lived. In a world increasingly divided by dogma and fear, the novel offers a powerful lesson: that true wisdom lies not in certainty, but in the courage to keep asking, to keep loving, and to keep moving forward, even in the dark.

Last updated: May 17, 2025