The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak
The Forty Rules of Love
by Elif Shafak
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 fi led by love. So when Ella reads a manuscript about the thirteenth-century Sufi poet Rumi and his mentor Shams of Tabriz, and his forty rules of life and love, she is ready to look at her life anew. Compelled to embrace change, she embarks on a journey to meet the mysterious author. It is a quest infused with Sufi mysticism and verse, taking Ella and us into a faraway world where faith and doubt are heartbreakingly explored. The Forty Rules of Love is a mesmerising tale of discovery, language, truth and, of course, love itself.
My Thoughts
As a huge fan of Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of love didn’t disappoint. In fact the only thing that did disappoint me was the fact that it was first published in 2010 and I didn’t know hence I had not read it earlier. However it proved a real treat to read and I fell in love with Ella’s character and how she took back control of her life through the manuscript about the forty rules of life and love in the thirteenth century.
This was a hugely compelling read which explores love itself and is absolutely fascinating that I am sure you will find yourself, like me , looking at how you understand the rules and accept them .
Elif has a style of writing that compels you to read her narrative whilst exploring the depths behind it and learning so much about the history of the time the manuscript was set in . All of this is achieved at a pace of writing that has you turning the pages at a steady pace until you find yourself at the end and looking at how the story has left you.
A huge 5 stars from me for this enthralling book that I would recommend you read.
About Elif
Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist, whose work has been translated into fifty-six languages. The author of nineteen books, thirteen of which are novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak's last novel, The Island of Missing Trees, was a top ten Sunday Times bestseller, and was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and the Women's Prize for Fiction. Her novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize. There Are Rivers in the Sky is her latest novel.
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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