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1977NBA 1978
Cover of Blood Tie

Blood Tie

Mary Lee Settle · 1918–2005 · United States

Why it matters

American and European expatriates in a Turkish coastal resort town carry on their affairs and complacencies as local political violence closes in around them. Settle's National Book Award winner turns a colonial gaze back on the people holding it.

At a glance

psychological novelpolitical novel
Difficulty 6/10medium pace368 pages

Multiple close-third perspectives and a slow-building political plot ask for patience.

More by Mary Lee Settle →

Deep dive

A resort town's foreign guests treat the coming political violence as scenery for most of the novel — until it stops being scenery and starts being their fault.

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