The Forty Rules of Love
Published on 18. May 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
368 pages
978-0-241-99654-6 (ISBN)
Description
The international bestseller from the author of the Booker-shortlisted novel, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World, The Forty Rules of Love is part of our Penguin Essentials series which spotlights the very best of our modern classics
*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.
'The past and present fit together beautifully in a passionate defence of passion itself' The Times
'Colourfully woven and beguilingly intelligent' Daily Telegraph
*** ELIF SHAFAK'S NEW NOVEL, THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY, IS AVAILABLE NOW ***
*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.
'The past and present fit together beautifully in a passionate defence of passion itself' The Times
'Colourfully woven and beguilingly intelligent' Daily Telegraph
*** ELIF SHAFAK'S NEW NOVEL, THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY, IS AVAILABLE NOW ***
Reviews / Votes
A gorgeous, jeweled, luxurious book * The Times * With its timely, thought-provoking message . . . The Forty Rules of Love deserves to be a global publishing phenomenon * Independent * 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 *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 180 mm
Width: 115 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
206 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-99654-6 (9780241996546)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Elif Shafak
The Forty Rules of Love
The magical tale of love and self-discovery from the bestselling author of The Island of Missing Trees
E-Book
06/2011
1st Edition
Penguin Books Ltd
€8.99
Available for download
Person
Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist, whose work has been translated into fifty-seven languages. The author of twenty books, fourteen of which are novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak's previous novel, THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY, was the UK's bestselling literary hardback novel of 2025, selling over 500,000 copies. Her work has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Women's Prize for Fiction, the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, amongst others, and she is currently nominated for 'Author of the Year' at the British Book Awards. Elif Shafak was appointed President of the Royal Society of Literature in 2025. Her books have sold several million copies worldwide.