The novel Istanbul Bastard presents the story of two families, Turkish and Armenian, separated by dramatic events in their homeland at the beginning of the twentieth century. None of the members of these large families even suspect that the tragedy of the past has closely bound them with invisible threads. But now Armanush, an American of Armenian descent, comes to Istanbul from San Francisco, who wants to unravel a tangle of family secrets and figure herself out. In Istanbul, she stays with her stepfather's Turkish relatives, where she meets her peer, nineteen-year-old Asia. Girls quickly find a common language, despite the fact that they are separated by upbringing, education, a different attitude to historical truth...