Şebnem İşigüzel

Foi realmente difícil ler o livro inteiro. Como as outras resenhas mencionam, a narrativa é em primeira pessoa e a garota fica pulando do presente para diferentes episódios do passado, tornando a história confusa e cansativa.
O começo é interessante - principalmente por mostrar a vida contemporânea da Turquia, que não estamos acostumados a ler aqui no Brasil- mas o meio se arrasta e, no final, parece que a pessoa cansa e acelera a quantidade de informações jogadas para dar um fechamento, para terminar o livro logo.
A garota fica choramingando a história toda que a professora de literatura falou mal do jeito que ela escreve, que ela merecia mais, mas realmente ela usa mal esse recurso de criar tensão por interrupção e fragmentos do passado.
A avó da garota, as tias, a mãe e as duas amigas são bem mais interessantes que ela, e olha que ela foi morar em cima de uma árvore.… (más)

So, I this is like a 2.5 star upgraded to a 3 star review for me. I have a lot of mixed feelings about the book. I do like the idea of this author being a foreign author writing about a foreign place, in this case Turkey. This provides a different perspective from that which we are so used to hearing about. The main character here, a young Turkish girl known by the moniker the girl in the tree, is a disadvantaged youth who experiences a series of personal tragedies in her young life. Perhaps out of guilt and frustration she forfeits her conventional life, for a burden less life in the trees of the local park. She makes a choice to live her life in these trees supported only by what the trees can provide her or by what she can steal from innocent park goers. Her commitment is questioned when a young Turkish bellboy from the neighboring hotel notices her in the tree and makes his efforts to become her new best friend and provider, giving her supplies and access to empty hotel rooms so she can clean herself up. Throughout the book, the girl in the tree tells her story of what led her to this life in the tree. Her love for the bellboy makes her question her resolve to stay in the tree. The narrative style is unusual as it told as a first hand account of a young girl who is talking to the reader as a friend. It also jumps around a lot. I would have hoped for a different ending after investing almost 400 pages worth of reading. Thank you to Netgalley for the copy.… (más)

Die Geschichten von 2 Frauen, die am Rande der Gesellschaft in Istanbul leben - eine auf einer Müllhalde und der Straße, eine im Schatten des Gespenstes ihrer Mutter...

Die Geschichten sind anfangs interessant geschrieben, auch wenn sie doch recht konstruiert wirken. Nervig ist es allerdings, wie sich die Erzählerin immer wieder an den Leser wendet. Und auch die fehlenden Zusammenhänge zwischen den Geschichten - die man aber doch immer wieder vermutet und die in gewisser Weise ganz am Schluss in den Interviews mit den Personen aus dem Buch bestätigt werden.… (más)