Title: Road to Siran, Erin’s Story
Sequel to Voice of Conscience
Author: Behcet Kaya
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
ISBN: B00H4EXZEI
Pages: 256
Genre: Fiction
Reviewed by: Gary Sorkin, Pacific Book Review
Book Review
History has many ways of repeating itself, as lives and love are woven together masterfully like a Persian rug by award winning author Behcet Kaya in his latest novel, Road to Siran, Erin’s Story. Although written as a sequel to Voice of Conscience, this novel stands on its own for those joining the series with enough of a storyline foundation written to bring new readers current with the cast of characters.As seen through the eyes and written in the first person of Erin Ozcomert, a young, beautiful graduate student at UCLA, readers are swept from modern day Los Angeles to the ancient customs, civilization and heritage of an area in Northeastern Turkey, Siran, by the Black Sea, ruled for centuries by the Ottoman Empire. A place where tradition prevails in social ceremonies, Erin discovers family feuds are still kindling hatred and murder; as the strength and moral fabric of the region’s Turkish heritage is torn by never forgotten malice performed by past generations.
Pursuing the answers to her father’s life events, Erin departs on her own journey to visit the town where her father was born – and had been forced to leave in exile as a child after a horrific murder spree killed his family. Escaping, yet forced to look over his shoulder for his own safety throughout life, he decided to take matters into his own hands, which had unbearable consequences for his conscience to accept. This book begins as Erin is compelled to learn more about these little known stories. Feeling the only way for her to learn about her father was to visit the Ozcomert family member decedents still living in Siran. What she learned was not what she expected.
Laced throughout this book is the romance thread of Erin’s coincidental meeting of one of her past professors, Dr. Harry Rattcliff, and falling in love. However the descriptions of Istanbul, the nightlife, traveling throughout the region, and the granular history gained throughout the novel by Behcet Kaya’s writing adds a much more impressive richness to the story than an anticipated love theme. A rather large amount of the book has Erin reading her Grandmother’s journal, kept hidden only for her eyes. This technique brought quite an enjoyable dimension to the story, cleverly interlaced with Erin’s emotions while uncovering her heritage. Also, especially amazing was having a chapter dedicated to taking readers on a private viewing of the Sultan’s palace with a curator extraordinaire, learning the practices of the Harem and concubines; their lifestyle of opulent captivity and slaughter.
Part romance novel, part travel guide, part historical dissertations and part suspense, Road to Siran, Erin’s Story is all entertainment. Impeccably written with multi-lingual verbiage and heavily laden in dialogue, Kaya takes the reader through ancient areas of the world with an acumen of detail only gained by a passion for storytelling. Behcet, using his own name as a cameo for a character in the novel, subliminally spoon feeds the reader historical expertise under the guise of a romance novel – a marvelous method of creating entertainment which educates. I would highly recommend this to a young adult female audience, yet broad enough in the historical sense to be open to a wider group of reading enthusiasts.
