By turns comic and tragic, The Flea Palaceis an outstandingly original novel driven by an overriding sense of social justice. Bonbon Palace was once a stately apartment block in Istanbul. Now it is a sadly dilapidated home to ten wildly different individuals and their families. There's a womanizing, hard-drinking academic with a penchant for philosophy; a 'clean freak' and her lice-ridden daughter; a lapsed Jew in search of true love; and a charmingly naïve mistress whose shadowy past lurks in the building. When the garbage at Bonbon Palace is stolen, a mysterious sequence of events unfolds that result in a soul-searching quest for truth. Shortlisted for the IndependentForeign Fiction Prize 'Picaresque.' Guardian 'Hyperactive and hilarious . . . Shafak's literary success and journalism mark her out as a figurehead of a new generation of writers.' Independent