The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak

Let’s talk right book, wrong time; does that ever happen to you? I first picked up The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak about this time last year and I just couldn’t get into it. I picked it up again at the beginning of the month and I have just finished it and I absolutely loved it!

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Here’s the synopsis for you;

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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.

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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.

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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...

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The story is told from different times lines and from multiple, and really interesting, perspectives.

I have to say in all honesty I didn’t know about Rumi, Shams of Tabriz or about Sufi philosophy but I found this to be really thought provoking and interesting read. Several times while reading it, I would break away and go online to try and learn more.

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It did take me a while to get into this one and it took me a while to read it but I just thought it was beautiful. I really didn’t want it to end and when I realised what was going to happen I cried before I even got to that part. It’s just beautiful and I highly recommend it.

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Other books that have fallen into that “right book, wrong time” for me include Memoirs of a Geisha and A Man Called Ove, I couldn’t get into either of them first time round but on the second attempt I fell in love with them. Has that happened to you with any books?

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Also, if you read any of Elif Shafak’s other books that you’ve really enjoyed I would to hear your recommendations.

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Have a great day 💕