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The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi
Critic Reviews
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Based on 4 reviews on
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 Zahara's tale of Shams of Tabriz'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.
The Forty Rules of Love unfolds two tantalizing parallel narratives--one contemporary and the other set in the thirteenth century, when Rumi encountered his spiritual mentor, Shams, the whirling dervish--that together explore the enduring power of Rumi's work.
Book Details
- Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
- Publish Date: Apr 26th, 2011
- Pages: 368
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 8.30in - 5.40in - 0.90in - 0.66lb
- EAN: 9780143118527
- Recommended age: 18-UP
- Categories: • Literary• Historical - General• Women
About the Author
More books by Elif Shafak
What people are saying
News editor & deputy bureau chief, East Africa, @AFP. Previously in 🇮🇳, 🇭🇰, 🇳🇵, 🇬🇧 . Views expressed are my own. Links & re-tweets are not endorsements.
"I left nearly everything in Kabul, I just had a backpack with my laptop and a novel by Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love. That was almost like a Qu’ran for me in Ukraine but I gifted it to a Ukrainian friend. And then I left Kyiv in a hurry too." https://t.co/IPstk2Da1f
We are the 'greatest literary show on Earth'.
Elif Shafak’s ‘10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World’ was Blackwell’s Book of the Year, & shortlisted for the Booker prize. Her books have been translated into 55 languages. Her ‘The Forty Rules of Love’ was chosen by the BBC as one of the 100 Novels that Shaped Our World. https://t.co/lA9ABV6ELR
Publishing the best books and authors for over 80 years. Discover your next great read at https://t.co/yMCVgWhHPy.
How about Elif Shafak's international bestseller The Forty Rules of Love? It's the story of one woman's quest to better understand life and love, infused with Sufi mysticism and verse. Also, one of the BBC's 100 Novels That Shaped the World! #AskPenguin https://t.co/PzT9czNKXV https://t.co/GHFiBHaqtO
Critics’ reviews
Praise for this book
"Here's a middle-aged love story and the inside story of one of history's great friendships, and on top of all that, the story of the battle within medieval Islam between the conservatives and the Sufis... Laugh, cry, tear your hair out as you learn."
--NPR.org
"A captivating and wise book . . . The tale of the fated meeting, spiritual companionship, and tragic parting of [Rumi and Shams of Tabriz] is beautifully recounted in The Forty Rules of Love. . . . Shafak draws on facts from Rumi's and Sham's biographies and brings them to life with deft storytelling."
--Associated Press
"A gorgeous, jeweled, luxurious book . . . The past and the present fit together beautifully in a passionate defense of passion itself."
--The Times (London)
"In this appealing fable, Turkish author Elif Shafak toggles between characters from different times: a modern American housewife and a thirteenth-century poet. . . . The universal theme is struggle between the rational mind and the aching heart. Shafak's heroine yields to the latter and never looks back."
--More magazine
What people are saying
News editor & deputy bureau chief, East Africa, @AFP. Previously in 🇮🇳, 🇭🇰, 🇳🇵, 🇬🇧 . Views expressed are my own. Links & re-tweets are not endorsements.
"I left nearly everything in Kabul, I just had a backpack with my laptop and a novel by Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love. That was almost like a Qu’ran for me in Ukraine but I gifted it to a Ukrainian friend. And then I left Kyiv in a hurry too." https://t.co/IPstk2Da1f
We are the 'greatest literary show on Earth'.
Elif Shafak’s ‘10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World’ was Blackwell’s Book of the Year, & shortlisted for the Booker prize. Her books have been translated into 55 languages. Her ‘The Forty Rules of Love’ was chosen by the BBC as one of the 100 Novels that Shaped Our World. https://t.co/lA9ABV6ELR