338 pages with 60 chapters.
"Gardens of Water" is a 2008 novel written by American author Alan Drew. The book takes place just before and following the 1999 Marmara, or Izmit, earthquake in Turkey. Alan Drew was in Istanbul when the devastating earthquake hit and was living in Turkey as an English literature teacher. The book is a work of fiction based on the people that Alan Drew met and his understanding of Turkish customs and the Islamic religion. The characters of Sinan and his family deal with issues that Alan Drew saw amongst many Turkish families following the tragic earthquake that killed 17,000 and left over half a million people homeless. 

 This powerful, emotional, and beautifully written novel brings to life two unforgettable families–one Kurdish, one American–and the sacrifice and love that bind them together.

When the book begin, Sinan is caught up in everyday problems. Despite hardship, he must be a role model for his nine year old son Ismail, who is preparing for his coming-of-age ceremony. Meanwhile his teenage daughter Irem grows more resentful of having to help her mother run the house, cover her glorious hair beneath a headscarf, and refrain from watching western television. But the delicate stability of this family is about to be tested in the wake of an earthquake that will stripe Sinan of his home and livehood, and with them his certainty as a father, husband and a man of faith. Reliant upon missionaries running the camp they now call home and morally indebt to an American whom he distrust (and whose son Dylan exerts a frightening pull on Irem), Sinan becomes entangled in a series of increasingly dangerous decisions. Pushed towards a final betrayal, Sinan may yet find that everything he holds dear is destroyed, like the street of Istanbul that lie in rubble beneath his feet.

The deep bonds among father, son, and daughter; the tension between honoring tradition and embracing personal freedom; the conflict between cultures and faiths; the regrets of age and the passions of youth–these are the themes Alan Drew weaves into this brilliant fiction novel.