Genre: Literary fiction, novel
Four and a half stars: * * * * 1/2
Though started in 2020, this was the first book I finished in 2021 and what a way to kickstart the new year! This book was sent to me mysteriously from a 'Secret Santa,' arriving on Christmas Eve. There was an accompanying note, indicating this was my Secret Santa's favourite book! Well, I can see why. From present day England to 13th Century, Anatolia; centuries apart we see a journey of love and life come together. It's exquisitely and enticingly written, littered with beautiful prose that is effortlessly weaved into the story. A spiritual journey, allowing us to reflect and take stock of what love really is, how it should feel and how we can be relentless in its pursuit no matter who we are or who will oppose - for there will always be those who do!
“Finally I understood that whenever people heard something unusual, they called it a dream.”
Synopsis
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, her world is turned upside down. 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...
“Some people make the mistake of confusing ‘submission’ with ‘weakness,’ whereas it is anything but. Submission is a form of peaceful acceptance of the terms of the universe, including the things we are currently unable to change or comprehend.”
My thoughts
As I turned page after page after page in this book, all I wanted was for Ella to follow her heart and rediscover love through her correspondence to Aziz, the author of the manuscript she's reviewing. Simultaneously I was completely enamoured by Shams of Tabriz, so simply at ease with life, his fate and his heart. I wanted Ella to find that same peace. It's rare that I find myself so vested in a character so early on in a story but something had me anchored to her.
"But in chess, just as in life, there were moves that you made for the sake of winning and there were moves you made because they were the right thing to do."
While we live in Ella's viewpoint in the present-day, the author uses many different characters' viewpoints in the 13th Century (Shams, Rumi, Desert Rose the Harlot, Suleiman the Drunk, the different family members of Rumi, to name but a few) to describe Shams' journey to Rumi and into his heart and mind. While so many view points and characters might ordinarily put me off, I was not at all confused and the author cleverly uses their 3-4 pages each time to bring in new perspectives and nudge the story along.
I spent quite a while after finishing the book, reflecting on the synergies between the different characters' relationships (especially Ella/Aziz and Shams/Rumi). Their physical and metaphorical journeys were encased in different ideals and desires. However, the lessons, or more appropriately, the forty rules of love, show their applicability in all aspects of life in the same way; while we live, love and die.
This book really enveloped me. You need to be in the mindset for a spiritual journey! As a mindful way to start 2021, this is much recommended!
“Neither a drop of kindness nor a speck of evil will remain unreciprocated.”
About the author
Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist. She writes in both Turkish and English, and has published 18 books, 11 of which are novels. Her work has been translated into 54 languages. Her latest novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and RSL Ondaatje Prize; and chosen Blackwell’s Book of the Year. The Forty Rules of Love was chosen by BBC among 100 Novels that Shaped Our World. Shafak holds a PhD in political science and she has taught at various universities in Turkey, the US and the UK, including St Anne's College, Oxford University, where she is an honorary fellow.
This is the first paragraph of the author's biography as given on her website here. an
award-winning British-Turkish novelist. She writes in both Turkish and English, and has published 18 w.
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