Price : $11.20
Product Description
Gardens of Water is an enthralling story of two families, and two faiths, in Turkey at the time of the cataclysm of 1999. It tells of Sinan, whose daughter, Irem, dreams of escaping the confines of her family and the duties of a devout Muslim woman. She sees in Dylan, an American boy and her upstairs neighbor, the enticing promise of another life. But then a massive earthquake forces Sinan and his family to live as refugees in their own country and leads to a dangerous intimacy with their American neighbors, as Irem and Dylan fall in love. When Sinan finds himself entangled in a series of increasingly dangerous decisions, he will be pushed toward a final betrayal that will change everyones lives forever. Powerful and beautifully written, Alan Drews Gardens of Water marks the debut of a brilliant new American writer.
Customer Reviews
Review date : 2008-09-26 
I put this book down with a sense of loss. It was totally engrossing and believable. I can’t remember a book I’ve enjoyed so much. I feel as if I lived through the earthquake with these characters.
But no-one has mentioned how totally foreign Sinan’s values are. He doesn’t want the American Marcus to have the comfort of knowing how his wife died because he feels he will be indebted if the man knows his wife saved the life of Sinan’s son. His boss gives him a gift of money out of sympathy for his plight and he resents him rather than being grateful, and later steals from him. This is a man whose grudges go back generations, who dispises those who help him because of his shame at needing help, who for all his love, has not taught his son about his religion, nor loved his daughter as much as his son, nor spent any time playing with his children. After the quake, he abandons his wife and children rather than trying to take care of them. His pride dictates his behavior, and though we understand the suffering of the Kurds, it has turned him into a man devoid of empathy, understanding, and compassion for others. He plunges from one action to another, ruled by his emotions, blaming others for his mistakes and rationalizing all the harm he himself has caused.
Nulifer, his wife is heartless, despite her obsession with her son, passive, and unquestioning of the rules that limit her choices. She never talks with her daughter, judging her instead without any attempt at understanding, and depriving her of the love the girl clearly desires. She too blames everything on outside forces and never examines her own behavior.
The Americans’ behavior is inexcusable as well. These fundamentalists are doing so much harm.
My husband and I have been reading books about Turkey while planning a trip there this spring, but I am coming to dislike the Turkish culture so much, we may change our destination.
Review date : 2008-07-27
GARDENS OF WATER is a tragedy for our times. Pick up today’s newspaper and you will read stories about natural disasters, terrorism, religious fanaticism, intolerance, graft, greed, corruption, tradition vs. modernity, women’s rights, Islam vs. the West, disaffected youth and intergenerational misunderstandings. Within this novel, Alan Drew’s first, there is rich food for thought on all of these topics. Drawing on his personal experience of Turkey, Drew brings us this compelling story of a Kurdish family living near Istanbul. The family has moved to the city seeking a better life, and we follow their lives just before and for some time after an earthquake strikes. In Sinan, the father, we get to know a Muslim male figure with three dimensional depth, one of the few I have encountered in present day novels. Sinan is a proud, religious man who loves his family and struggles to provide for them, as he tries to plan for the future and to make sense of his own past. Orem, the teenage daughter, is caught between the (relatively)conservative religious world of her parents and the tantalizing freedom of more secular Turks and, particularly, an American boy her own age. Ismail, is the doted on, much beloved, younger brother. Nulifer, the dedicated wife and mother, is perhaps the least well-developed character of the family. However, the thoughts and actions of both female characters gave me a much greater understanding of the concept of modesty and honor in the world of Islam. A family of American missionaries are secondary characters in the book and present the reader with an opportunity to view Christian proselytizing from a Muslim’s point of view. I would highly recommend this book to those with an interest in world events, more particularly an interest in Turkey, the Kurds, the Middle East and Islam. Auther Drew, without preaching or arriving at judgement, paints a gripping and tragic picture, and leaves each of us to draw our own conclusions.
Review date : 2008-06-07 
After reading a story about Alan Drew in Poets and Writers magazine, as well as the positive reviews on this website, I read Gardens of Water, and throughout the entire story kept thinking, "What are people in this country willing to settle for?"
The book, as well as its reviews, tend toward some study or commentary over the supposed cultural/religious clash in the book (clue: there really isn’t one except for some individual character’s personal experiences, and even then the writer couldn’t decide if it was a cultural clash or a religious one), but the characters themselves are not well thought out, and Drew never considers the more overarching themes of what faith and belief are, how they are culturally influenced, or what stays of that culture render a specific belief zealous and relevant or benign. The dialogue (conversations) that takes place in the story could’ve easily been thrown out because just about every conversation was smalltalk (who cares?).
Gardens of Water was not a story that HAD to be written, that the world needed to hear. It was not daring, innovative, or even that well-written. Drew spent five years writing it. Maybe he should’ve spent seven, like Junot Diaz, and put out something as touching, poetic and worthy as The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
Review date : 2008-05-03
In a complex world of clashing cultures, both between nations as well as within one another, Alan Drew weaves a tale that captivates the readers emotions, taking hold until the very end.
The story begins as Sinan and his Kurdish family celebrate their son’s rite of passage. It is at this early point in the story that we discover that Irem, their teenage daughter bares a slight jealously towards her beloved brother for their parents favored treatment. We also learn of Irem’s relationship with the American boy who lives in the apartment above them.
Suddenly, an earthquate hits the town that changes the life of each and every character forever.
So begins a tale that will ultimately lead to passion, fear, regret, loss, friendship, forgiveness, guilt, anger, and peace.
Irem will have you quickly reminiscing of those feelings as a rebellious teenager stricken with a desperate case of puppy love.
Sinan, the most complex character of the novel, will cause your emotions to fluctuate as you journey with him through the depth of a father’s love, his misconstrued hatred for America and his contemplation of how to regain the honor of his family.
The ending comes as quite a surprise and I am sincerely impressed with this fresh novelist’s debut into the literary world.
It is with great anticipation that I await his next project.
Review date : 2008-04-22
Garden’s of Water, a debut novel, by Alan Drew, is a rich and multi-level work. The book is an honest and tragic look at at a small Kurdish family; however the appeal is universal. Parts of the novel harken back to the tragedy of King Lear and the star-crossed lovers in Romeo and Juliet.
In synopsis the story is rather simple with six main characters a small Kurdish family: Father, Mother, Ismail, the young son and the teenage daughter, Irem, and the family of a Christian missionary educator,( poorly fleshed-out), his wife and teenage son.
Rather than recounting the story; I would rather list some major themes: a clash of cultures, a father’s honor, the role of women in Islamic society, the power of community and the hopelessness of poverty.
The Water of the title runs as a theme throughout the book: the Bosphorius, a life saved by water, a life ended by water,water for healing and washing for prayer.
A beautiful little book with a real insight into a man’s soul.The book will stay with you long after you finish it. A gem of a book, I highly recommend it.
