The Bastard of Istanbul

Elif Shafak gives the age of 19 significance in the novel, as it is both the age at which Zeliha Kazanci gets pregnant and the age at which her daughter, Asya, finds out about the truth of her origins. Why do you think the author made this choice? What might she have wanted to demonstrate about how much or how little things have changed between generations?

While family is very important in the novel, community is, too. Both Asya and Armanoush find senses of community at Café Kundera and Café Constantinople. How do these communities inform their understandings of their identities and aid them in asserting their individualities?

Barsam Tchakhmakchian grew up feeling very insecure about his darker complexion and the relative strangeness of Armenian culture in San Francisco. How might his decision to marry Rose have been influenced by a desire to conform and to seem more typically American?