The twenty-first book that I’ve finished reading this year is Elif Shafak’s “Three Daughters of Eve”. Thanks Z for lending it to me. A wife with three children, Peri was on her way to a party thrown by a prominent businessman when her fake designer bag gets stolen from her back seat. As she chases after the burglars and spots the polaroid tucked deep within the bag, a flood of memories wash over her numb mind, reminding her of a rift that she has left unattended to for too long. Born and raised in a divisive household in Istanbul, Peri is constantly torn between her religiously conservative mother and her liberal father. Growing up with ever more questions about God, Peri enrolled in Oxford on a quest for knowledge and answers. Upon meeting her future roommates, the daring Iranian-British Shirin and the pious American-Egyptian Mona, she was recommended to join the “God” seminar, held by Professor Azur, a man full of mystery. Uncontrollably drawn to??him, Peri makes a grave mistake that will take her years to repent. The binary structure of the novel contrasts the two different Peris - one in her middle age, succumbed to mundane matters; one in her youth, curious for knowledge and enlightenment. As the story unfolds, readers become evermore roused by what caused her to drop out of Oxford, and who Professor Azur is. Portrayed as an all-knowing, rule-defying professor who trumps typical old and conservative Oxford professors, Azur seems to possess extraordinary qualities that both attract and challenge his students. A proponent of conflict, Azur always encourages his students to look at perspectives from the other side, towing fertile soil for critical thinking. He praises uncertainty as it forces people to think and move forward. Reading his seminars, I was impressed by his bold methods and inspired to foster the like for my classes. However, nobody is without flaws. At the end of the novel, his backstory is revealed, and a man once revered as God is seen once again as human. The main theme of this novel is whether God exists and in what form. This was a topic that I had also explored during my time at university; with Z, too. I have attended church services, bringing silver decanters to the altar; I have embarked on a journey to Israel, in search for the roots of the three major monotheistic religions; I have read “if the oceans were ink”(also recommended by Z), a conversation between a Sheikh and an American scholar specialising in Islamic studies, also set in Oxford. The city of spires offers much to its inhabitants, providing various opportunities to seek different opinions and answers to fundamental questions. Though to this day I have yet developed a solid understanding of God, or of religion, the seeds buried within myself during my student years continue to remind me, at crucial moments of my life, to believe, and to keep searching.