At the Breakfast Table

By: Betsy Göksel - translator, Defne Suman

Narrated by: Frazer Blaxland, Angela Christofilou

Told from four different perspectives, At the Breakfast Table is a story of hidden histories and family secrets, from the author of The Silence of Scheherazade.

Prinkipo Island, Turkey, 2017. In the glow of a late summer morning, family gather for the 100th birthday of the famous artist Sirin Saka. It ought to be a time of fond reminiscence, looking back on a long and fruitful artistic career, on memories spanning almost a century, but also of an era when imperial forces fought over her homeland.

But the deep past is something Sirin has spent a lifetime trying to conceal. Her grandchildren, Nur and Fikret, and great grandchild, Selin, do not know what Sirin is hiding, though they are intimately aware of the secret's psychological consequences. The siblings invite family friend and investigative journalist Burak along to interview Sirin for his weekly column in celebration of her 100th year. They hope he will help unravel the family secrets and persuade her to talk. Sirin's life-long servant, Sadik, is determined to do all he can to protect the artist.

Eventually Sirin begins to express her pain the only way she knows how. She paints the story onto her dining room wall, revealing a history wiped from public consciousness and the cause of her family's anguish that has sat, ruinous, in their subconscious for generations.

©2022 Defne Suman (P)2022 W F Howes

Great story but narration was left wanting

Why is it that narrators of translated works often don't bother to learn the correct pronunciation of names or places. It makes listening to the story a jarring experience. Great story and, similar to Suman's previous work, it focuses on a darker area of history that many people outside of those communities won't be familiar with.

I wanted to love this book..

The inter-generational themes, history, and setting all appealed to me and I was excited to find this Turkish novel available in English. There are elements of the story and setting that are absorbing. The dialogue is stilted and the voice/narration, especially of the female characters, verges on shrill.