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Tim O'Brien

961. Elif Shafak - The Forty Rules Of Love


A very strange book.

A story within a contemporary novel set mainly in a Turkish city in the 13th century involving a whirling dervish Shams and a Sufi poet/preacher Rumi, and various ancillary characters, each of whom voices each short chapter.

Shams is sent, for obscure reasons, to find Rumi and they exchange fairly mystic truths with each other, and Shams in particular has various adventures, culminating in his murder as he is a deeply controversial figure.

Shafak is a Turkish writer and I wasn’t sure whether this was some parable of Christianity, or a philosophical variation on Islamic beliefs

Readable but a bit difficult for me! Possibly my ignorance about Sufi-ism was a hindrance.


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