The Bastard of Istanbul

“As cobblestones rained from above, enlarging further the cavity underneath, she panicked, afraid of being swallowed by the hungry abyss. ‘Stop!’ she cried out as the stones kept rolling under her feet. ‘Stop!’ she commanded the vehicles speeding toward her and then running her over. ‘Stop!’ she begged the pedestrians shouldering her aside. ‘Please stop!’”

Zeliha has a recurring dream in which she feels attacked by some of the things that characterize Istanbul—its cobblestoned streets, its busy roads and its ample foot traffic. The scene plays on a Turkish expression not to curse things that come from the sky. Recently impregnated by her brother as a result of rape, Zeliha feels no sense of blessing and resents living in a society that is inclined both to blame her for being pregnant out of wedlock and for exercising authority over her own body by getting an abortion.

“This child of yours will lead the masses, and bring peace and justice to humankind!”

Zeliha’s proclamation is cheeky; however, the scene foreshadows Asya’s future role in helping to close the divide between Armenians and Turks. Asya does grow into a young woman with a sense of “peace and justice,” which helps to explain her liberal attitude toward people, such as the transgender prostitute to whom she gives a bracelet. Asya inherits this sensibility from her mother, whose own sense of justice compels her to reveal Asya’s paternity.

“Her husband’s family had wanted to name the baby girl after her grandmother’s mother. How deeply Rose lamented not having named her something less outlandish, like Annie or Katie or Cyndie, instead of accepting the name her mother-in-law had come up with. A child was supposed to have a childlike name and ‘Armanoush’ was anything but that.”

Rose’s aversion to her daughter’s name is twofold: she dislikes its connection to the Armenian culture that she never bothered to understand, and, similarly, the name indicates a level of cultural distance from her daughter.