GARDENS OF WATER
Alan Drew
Random House
Fiction
ISBN: 9781400066872

• About the Book
• Read an Excerpt
• Author Interview –– February 8, 2008
• Author Talk –– January 11, 2008

The conflict in the Middle East doesn’t seem to be dissipating any time soon, and America’s imperialistic presence in that part of the world continues to be met with much derision by people at home and abroad. Because of that fact, literature written about the subject matter is flooding the marketplace --- especially as the Iraq war threatens to bubble over into Iran and more and more people are dying in the name of freedom. Just because Alan Drew’s debut novel lands comfortably in the pile along with the rest of it, by no means should it be looked at as commonplace. Quite the opposite --- GARDENS OF WATER is nothing short of extraordinary.

Set in a small town outside Istanbul, the book opens as Sinan Basioglu, a Kurdish shopkeeper and devout Muslim, is preparing for his nine-year-old son Ismail’s circumcision ceremony. Right from the start, Drew sets the scene for his readers: the bustle of the overcrowded streets, the smells wafting from the market food stalls and the sounds of the mosques calling patrons to prayer. As the day wears into evening, Ismail’s party peters out, and family friends, who have been happily crammed into a small room, eating, dancing and offering up good wishes for Ismail and his family, leave for the night --- including Marcus, his wife Sarah and their 17-year-old son, Dylan, the American neighbors whom Sinan and his wife, Nilüfer, begrudgingly invite at the last minute.

Then disaster strikes. An earthquake (reminiscent of the actual Marmara earthquake of 1999 that Drew experienced firsthand) hits and destroys most of the town, claiming thousands of lives, including Sarah, who dies preventing Ismail from being crushed by the fallen rubble. What follows is the incredibly complex story of what’s left of these intertwined broken families as they move into a Red Cross refugee camp and struggle to move past their respective losses in order to survive.

It’s difficult to pinpoint just one aspect of GARDENS OF WATER that makes it so excruciatingly sad yet painfully beautiful. Instead, it’s the convergence of each interdependent, interwoven thread that makes the story come alive with meaning. For one, the forbidden love affair between Irem, Sinan’s 15-year-old daughter, and Dylan is fraught with the boundless passion and naïveté that can only stem from inexperience and each character’s dogged fascination with the unknown. While Irem and Dylan’s clandestine meetings erupt with energy and hope, it soon becomes only too clear that their disparate cultural backgrounds and familial responsibilities loom too large to be recklessly ignored.

What’s more, the intricacies of each character’s belief system underlie every interaction throughout the book --- especially Sinan’s. He cherishes his daughter yet cannot condone her love for an American boy who flouts all sense of tradition and faith in his reverence of modern music, sex and other worldly pleasures, while Irem longs to break free of the crushing weight of her parents’ control --- at least she thinks she does. He feels indebted to Marcus for saving his son and bringing his family food and supplies, but he resents Marcus’s Christian values and hates the Americans for the atrocities they continue to commit against his country in the pursuit of oil and power in exchange for the supposed freedom of the Kurdish people. He is the bastion of pride and honor yet is haunted by shame and guilt for the decisions he has made regarding his family’s future. Sinan epitomizes the fallen hero --- one who strives for greatness but can’t help but be crushed by the fallibility of his own soul.

Above all, GARDENS OF WATER is a vivid snapshot into the lives of downtrodden people ravaged by war, greed, religious persecution and centuries-old misunderstanding. With every word, Drew captures the truest essence of what transpires when two dissimilar cultures collide under desperate circumstances. And while the catalyst for Sinan’s family and neighbors’ troubles is a natural disaster instead of war, one can’t help but think that the book hints at a larger metaphor: the inexcusable transgressions happening worldwide to people who are taken advantage of in the name of religion, the acquisition of land, or the plundering of natural resources. Though some Americans hate to admit that we might be at the center of such controversies, Drew tastefully places us at the forefront of the equation in a gesture that refrains from placing blame, but merely points out the complexities of the situation.

GARDENS OF WATER is a remarkable work from a compelling new voice in fiction.

    --- Reviewed by Alexis Burling

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