HyeOctane

Her sixth novel, “The Bastard of Istanbul,” was a runaway best seller in Turkey, with more than 120,000 copies purchased. Ms. Shafak had planned a six-city American book tour to promote it, including stops in Chicago and Los Angeles, but sharply curtailed the tour after the murder of Hrant Dink in January. Mr. Dink was a prominent Turkish newspaper editor of Armenian ancestry and a close friend of Ms. Shafak.

Sipping tea at the Warwick Hotel in Midtown Manhattan this week, Ms. Shafak politely declined to discuss her safety concerns, worried that the already dangerous situation could escalate. She travels with a bodyguard now and has been placed under official police protection in Turkey.

But as she prepared to leave this country for Istanbul, her book tour cut short, she reflected on what it means to be a writer in the United States and in Turkey, where literature and politics are seldom separated, and where her novels have transformed her into a controversial public figure. [Read More]