Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts at the Hay Festival on 30 May 2011.
Ella Rubinstein has a husband, three teenage children, and a pleasant home. Yet there is an emptiness at the heart of Ella's life - an emptiness once filled by love. So when Ella reads a manuscript about the thirteenth-century Sufi poet Rumi and Shams of Tabriz, and his forty rules of life and love, she is shocked out of herself.
Ella Rubinstein has a husband, three teenage children, and a pleasant home. Everything that should make her confident and fulfilled. Yet there is an emptiness at the heart of Ella's life - an emptiness once filled by love. So when Ella reads a manuscript about the thirteenth-century Sufi poet Rumi and Shams of Tabriz, and his forty rules of life and love, she is shocked out of herself. Turning her back on her family she embarks on a journey to meet the mysterious author of this work. It is a quest infused with Sufi mysticism and verse, taking Ella and us into an exotic world where faith and love are heartbreakingly explored...
'Shafak will challenge Paulo Coelho's dominance. With its timely, thought-provoking message ... The Forty Rules of Love deserves to be a global publishing phenomenon' Independent
'Enlightening, enthralling. An affecting paean to faith and love Metro Colourfully woven and beguilingly intelligent' Daily Telegraph
'The past and present fit together beautifully in a passionate defence of passion itself' The Times
Author
About Elif Shafak
Elif Shafak was born in Strasbourg, France, in 1971. She is an award-winning novelist and the most widely read female writer in Turkey. Critics have acclaimed her as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary literature in both Turkish and English. Her novels include The Bastard of Istanbul which was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages. She is married with two children, and divides her time between London and Istanbul. Her website is www.elifshafak.com.
