The Forty Rules of Love

Of course, the title leapt out at me from the bookshop shelf! And on reading the first page I fell in love with Shafak’s lyrical writing.

As I read further, I was drawn into the stories of love in many guises within its pages. I was intrigued by the way the author wove a modern narrative of a deeply unhappy American housewife with a story about the historical character, thirteenth-century Sufi poet, Rumi, and his friendship with wandering dervish, Shams of Tabriz.

The story took me to a place and time far from mine and I learned about a very… show more.

This dual timeline novel is based on the transformative relationship between the 13th-century love poet, Rumi, his contemporary wandering dervish, Shams of Tabriz, and a twenty-first-century homemaker who alters her life based on their teachings and the intensity of their bond.

The author weaves these characters into a narrative that celebrates love in all its forms as the most powerful force of nature. This book features fictionalized characterisation of real personages, as well as presenting a variety of other characters representing humanity in all its greatness and ugliness. Philosophical and thought-provoking, this book deepened my life.   

As a lover of Rumi poetry, I was carried away by this book!

It is not, however, a book of poetry but a historical fiction about a transforaminal “love affair” between Shams of Tabrizi, a mystic Sufi wander, and the thirteenth-century Maulana Jalal-Ud-Din, Rumi, a traditional Islamic Cleric. This love relationship is not one we are used to hearing about but a genuine divine connection for spiritual elevation.

There are two fascinating novels in one, a contemporary story about a woman in a mid-life crisis on the edge of divorce and an empty nest, finding herself drawn into an outside… show more.

Full of Sufi wisdom and fundamental human and spiritual truths, this book has the power to awaken something profound within the heart of any reader but is especially relevant for women on a path of finding, or in Ella’s case, re-finding herself.

As someone who read Rumi poetry books until the pages start falling out, Shafak’s thoroughly researched depiction of the relationship between Rumi and his Sufi master Shams was profoundly impactful.

It is so beautifully seeped with ancient wisdom and insights into the Sufi path walked by sincere seekers of love and freedom themselves I found myself hanging onto… show more.