The Forty Rules of Love: The magical tale of love and self-discovery from the bestselling author of The Island of Missing Trees

· Penguin UK
4.6
260 reviews
Ebook
368
Pages
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About this ebook

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

*One of the BBC's '100 Novels that Shaped the World'*

"Every true love and friendship is a story of unexpected transformation. If we are the same person before and after we loved, that means we haven't loved enough . . ."

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.

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.

'Enlightening, enthralling. An affecting paean to faith and love' Metro

'Colourfully woven and beguilingly intelligent' Daily Telegraph

'The past and present fit together beautifully in a passionate defence of passion itself' The Times

Ratings and reviews

4.6
260 reviews
Juwairiyah Nawaz
March 28, 2022
This book was recommended to me by my mother. This is such a beautiful book which can make us reflect how similar the struggles of people in the past have with the people in present. It's a book which describes of a friendship that cannot be defined. A friendship between two human being which brings the best out of each other and motivates each other to be the best version of themselves. Every rule even written in 1200s is still relevant today. Every chapter will compel one to stop and think and go back and re-read it.
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Shahanaz
May 2, 2021
the book gives a provoking message as it a novel sweet blasphemy that begins to change the Ella's life. Ella Rubinstein is a 40 years old housewife who is unsatisfied with her married life. Her husband named David who deceives her in their marital relationship and has extra affairs too. coming close to the book ,is all tell about the value of love in life. The book consists of forty rules of love and the love of religion Islam .The book tells about the two stories mainly. The modern women with a unhappy married life and the spiritual story of Rumi and Shams The story of Shams and Rumi comes to the book through Ella, while she got a job as a reviewer in a literacy agent .And she pick her first book is sweet blasphemy, as she enjoyed her book as a first read , she began to research about the author[AZIZ]. At last she sent a mail, gradually they become friends by mailing everyday. the plot of the story completely changes after she tell her husband about the affair with Aziz.. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
9 people found this review helpful
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saritha sukumaran
December 2, 2018
This book came to me when I myself was in love. That's the reason I bought it. Every turn of phrase is so beautiful, that it was difficult not to tear up with the pain and beauty of it all. Such an achingly poignant work!
70 people found this review helpful
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About the author

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist, whose work has been translated into fifty-eight languages. The author of twenty books, thirteen of which are novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak’s novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize. The Island of Missing Trees was a Sunday Times bestseller, and was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and the Women’s Prize for Fiction. There are Rivers in the Sky, which won an Edward Stanford Award for Fiction, is her latest novel.

Shafak holds a PhD in political science, and is a Fellow and a Vice President of the Royal Society of Literature. She has been awarded the medal of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and, in 2024, was awarded the British Academy President's Medal for ‘her excellent body of work which demonstrates an incredible intercultural range’.

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