Shafak faced a sentence of up to three years in prison for the remarks made in her novel. After the prosecutor dropped the charges due to lack of insult, the lawyer refiled his complaint at a higher court, the Beyoglu 2nd Court of First Instance, in July 2006. The lawsuit was opened at Istanbul's Beyoğlu district court in accordance with Article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code. In June 2006, Kemal Kerinçsiz, a nationalist lawyer, sued Elif Shafak for allegedly 'insulting Turkishness' in her novel by dealing with the Armenian Genocide in the last years of the Ottoman Empire. Its premiere took place on Mastarring Turkish actress Serra Yılmaz.

The novel was adapted into a theatre play in Italian language by Angelo Savelli titled La Bastarda Di Istanbul, and was staged by Teatro di Rifredi in Florence, Italy. At age nineteen, Armanoush travels secretly to Istanbul to search for her Armenian roots. The novel deals with their families and how they are connected through the events of the 1915 Armenian genocide. It is set in Tucson, Arizona San Francisco, California and Istanbul, Turkey. The story is centered around the characters of Asya Kazancı and Armanoush Tchakhmakhchian. It was translated by Aslı Biçen into her native language Turkish under the title Baba ve Piç in March 2006, and became a bestseller. The Bastard of Istanbul is a 2006 novel by Turkish bestselling author Elif Shafak, written originally in English and published by

The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak