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A Novel of Rumi
by Elif Shafak
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.
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (1/1/2026)
Elif Shafak is one of my favorite authors! I was hooked after reading The Forty Rules of Love several years ago.
-Laurie_L
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (11/6/2025)
I absolutely loved this book!! Elif Shafak is a favorite of mine. If you haven't read The Forty Rules of Love, I highly recommend it!
-Laurie_L
The Top 20 Best Books of the Year as Voted by BookBrowsers
Hi ! If you enjoyed There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak, you might like The Island of Missing Trees as well as one of my all time favorites by Shafak- The Forty Rules of Love. I find her writing to be magnificent!
-Laurie_L
What are you reading this week? (11-28-2024)
I've disappeared into the medieval period with Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth and The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak, one in print and the other as an audio book.
-Davina_Morgan-Witts
"Starred Review. Shafak’s seductive, shrewd, and affecting novel brilliantly revives the revelations of Shams and Rumi, and daringly illuminates the differences between religion and spirituality, censure and compassion, fear and love of life in our own violent world." - Booklist
"This novel, a best seller in Turkey, may appeal to fans of Nicholas Sparks or Robert James Waller." - Library Journal
"Celebrated Turkish novelist Shafak serves up a curious blend of mediocre hen lit and epic historical to underwhelming results." - Publishers Weekly
"Shafak should have dropped Ella's story, with its preachy spiritual ruminations, and stuck to Rumi's odyssey, which opens a window into a world Westerners know little about." - Kirkus Reviews
"[An} appealing fable ... The universal theme is the struggle between the rational mind and the aching heart. Shafak’s heroine yields to the latter and never looks back." - More Magazine (more.com)
This information about The Forty Rules of Love was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Ebru Bilun
Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish author of a dozen novels, including The Island of Missing Trees, which was short-listed for the Costa Novel Award, and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize. Her work has been translated into fifty-six languages. She holds a PhD in political science and has taught at universities in Turkey, the United States and the United Kingdom. She lives in London and is an honorary fellow at Oxford University.
Author Interview
Link to Elif Shafak's Website
Name Pronunciation
Elif Shafak: El-liff Sha-fahk
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