Book Review: ‘Summer Heat’ by Defne Suman

Defne Suman

Summer Heat, by Defne Suman, is a deep dive into the life and experiences of the story’s protagonist Melike. While the novel opens in contemporary Turkey, it moves backwards and forwards in time, back to the early 1970s and the invasion of the island of Cyprus by Turkish troops.

Melike is an art historian and has what most would consider a good life – a loving husband and a successful career; in other words she has no reason to complain about anything. Yet, for some reason she’s dissatisfied. She has affairs which go nowhere and is constantly pushing people away from her.

All this changes when she meets Petro. A Greek documentary film maker, he has ostensibly hired her to consult on a movie he’s shooting about Eastern Orthodox churches in Istanbul. However, it turns out he has a hidden agenda. He comes bearing a message from her estranged father who is dying and wants to see her.

When Melike was a child her father left and she’s not had any contact with him since. His vanishing left her with emotional and psychological scars. As Suman describes her she seems to be constantly searching for someone, anyone, to love – a common symptom displayed by somebody who blames themselves for a parent abandoning them at a young age.

The reappearance – even tangentially – of her father causes incredible upheaval in Melike’s life. First Suman has her begin to look back on her childhood and see it through new eyes. While Melike’s mother lives with her, they barely communicate. However, when Melike informs her mother that her former husband is dying and wants to see her, it forces the two women to sit down and talk.

As they talk the mother reveals secrets from the family’s past. It turns out Melike’s father’s mother was a Greek from Cyprus who was given a fake Turkish identity by a high ranking Turkish officer who was her lover. The fake Turkish identity allowed her to be settled in Turkey safely during the two countries’ continual strife.

After his mother committed suicide, Melike’s father had travelled to Cyprus to find out more about his family. While his intent may not have been to stay permanently, his visit happened to coincide with Turkey’s invasion of the island in the 1970s and he was overtaken by events. 

Suman’s story is a brilliant and moving one of how trauma can effect the lives of people. Not only did the invasion of Cyprus in the 1970s result in horror, but the ripples spread far and wide through both Turkey and Greece. 

By focusing on one family, and Melike in particular, Suman has given us more insight into how the horrors of war and atrocities can impact generations – even those who were not directly involved with the conflict.

Summer Heat tells a story of war that history books and news stories never reveal. It is a powerful and inspired work that will keep readers enthralled.