60 pages • 2 hours read
Elif ShafakA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Peri arrives at Oxford in the year 2000 with her parents in tow to drop her off. Mensur, like Peri, is awed by the campus, while Selma is distrustful and warns Peri to stay away from company and focus on her education. Peri promises to return home to attend Hakan’s wedding, which is scheduled to happen soon.
The Nalbantoğlus meet Shirin, a second-year student appointed to show them around campus. Shirin is beautiful and exuberant and dressed in clothes and makeup that Selma immediately disapproves of. In turn, Peri notices Shirin’s disdain for Selma and her headscarf.
As Shirin shows the family around campus, Mensur and Selma continually bicker. Shirin notices the tension between Peri’s parents and comments on it to her separately. She also describes how she is the oldest of four girls, born in Tehran. Her father disagreed with how Iran was changing, and the family moved across Europe, living in Switzerland and Portugal before settling in England. As a result, Shirin doesn’t feel a sense of home anywhere.
After the tour, Shirin bids the Nalbantoğlus farewell. She reveals to Peri that they’ll see plenty of each other, as they are both in the same housing building, with rooms opposite each other.
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