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The Forty Rules of Love
by Elif Shafak
Description:
In this lyrical, exuberant follow-up to her 2007 novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, acclaimed Turkish author Elif Shafak unfolds two tantalizing parallel narratives one contemporary and the other set in the thirteenth century, when Rumi encountered his spiritual mentor, the whirling dervish known as Shams of Tabriz that together incarnate the poet’s timeless message of love. Ella Rubenstein is forty years old and unhappily married when she takes a job as a reader for a literary agent. Her first assignment is to read and report on Sweet Blasphemy, a novel written by a man named Aziz Zahara. Ella is mesmerized by his tale of Shams’s search for Rumi and the dervish’s role in transforming the successful but unhappy cleric into a committed mystic, passionate poet, and advocate of love. She is also taken with Shams’s lessons, or rules, that offer insight into an ancient philosophy based on the unity of all people and religions, and the presence of love in each and every one of us. As she reads on, she realizes that Rumi’s story mirrors her own and that Zahara like Shams has come to set her free.
About The Author
Elif Afak (born 25 October 1971) is a Turkish author, columnist, speaker and academic.
Afak has published 15 books, 10 of which are novels. She writes fiction in both Turkish and English. Afak blends Western and Eastern traditions of storytelling in stories of women, minorities, immigrants, subcultures, and youth. Her writing draws on diverse cultures and literary traditions, reflecting interests in history, philosophy, Sufism, oral culture, and cultural politics. Afak also uses black humour. She was awarded the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2010. Elif Afak has published 14 books, nine of which are novels.
Afak’s first novel, Pinhan (The Hidden) was awarded the Rumi Prize in 1998, which is given to the best work in mystical literature in Turkey. Her second novel, Ehrin Aynalar (Mirrors of the City), tells the story of a family of Spanish conversos, brings together Jewish and Islamic mysticism against a historical setting in the 17th century Mediterranean. Afak greatly increased her readership with her novel Mahrem (The Gaze) which earned her the “Best Novel Turkish Writers’ Union Prize in 2000 Her next novel, Bit Palas (The Flea Palace, 2002), has been a bestseller in Turkey and was shortlisted for Independent Best Foreign Fiction in 2005.
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