Long celebrated as one of Turkey’s most widely read female authors, Elif Shafak has built a literary career spanning more than 20 years and 14 novels. Her recent work, including the bestsellerThere Are Rivers in the Skywhich traces the journey of a single raindrop from ancient Nineveh to the River Tigris—has cemented her status as a global literary voice. Previous accolades include a Women’s Prize shortlist nomination forThe Island of Missing Treesand similar recognition for10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange Worldwhich explored the life of a murdered sex worker in Istanbul. But it is Shafak whose novels are fervently passed among readers, orhan Pamuk may have won the Nobel prize in literature. Which follows a single raindrop from ancient Nineveh to the River Tigris in 2018, was one of the UK’s bestselling literary novels last year, there Are Rivers in the Sky. A love story set in post-colonial Cyprus and contemporary London, was shortlisted for the Women’s prize in 2022, and 10 Minutes 38 seconds in This Strange World, narrated by a murdered sex worker in Istanbul, was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 2019, the Island of Missing Trees. Last December she was elected president of the Royal Society of Literature. Taking in politics, history, feminism and ecology, typically with a dash of magic realism or mysticism, her novels sweep confidently across centuries and continents. In long, far-reaching sentences, shafak talks with the same fluency and lyrical intensity as she writes. But, like Flaubert himself, she is a huge fan of Don Quixote, we last met when she was part of the panel to discuss 100 best novels of all time list earlier this year: Madame Bovary was in her top 10. She has recently enjoyed renewed popularity with younger readers on BookTok. It is no wonder there are snaking queues of readers of all ages and nationalities for the signings after her literary events. While Flaubert set out to inhabit the female mind – then a radical proposition for a male novelist – Shafak upends the premise of Madame Bovary to tell his story through multiple women whose paths may have crossed with his. “I wanted to bring together the European canon of the novel with the Middle Eastern oral tradition of storytelling,” she explains. “You open a box and inside there’s another box, under this story. We meet an Egyptian dancer and courtesan, Kuchuck Hanem, with whom Flaubert becomes enraptured on his travels in the Middle East, passingly mentioned in biographies. “I wanted to remember this woman and say, ‘Maybe this is the woman who inspired Madame Bovary,’” Shafak says. “I want to claim that at the heart of this iconic French European literary heroine, there is an Egyptian belly dancer. Opium, syphilis and Istanbul (Shafak always thinks of the city as “she”) are also given their own chapters. Not only with each other as fellow human beings, but with nature, we are all interconnected.
In a 2017 Ted Talk that has reached over 6.4 million viewers, Shafak defined herself as an Istanbulite, a Londoner, and a “European by birth and by choice.” She identifies as a global soul and an itinerant storyteller, characteristics that inform her expansive narrative style. Currently residing in west London with her husband and two children, the 54-year-old author recently releasedIn One Brief Moment All Eternitya fictionalized account of the life of Gustave Flaubert. Today, she is surely simply its best loved. According to her latest, In One Brief Moment All Eternity, is a stylistically inventive fictionalised life of Gustave Flaubert. “This book is really my love letter to literature,” Shafak, Over coffee in west London, where the 54-year-old author has lived with her husband and two children for the past 18 years. For me, the long narrative form is about honouring those connections.”.
Shafak describes this latest project as a “love letter to literature.” The book serves as a reflection on the “Age of Three As”—Angst, Anger, and AI—a term she uses to characterize the current global climate of technological uncertainty, climate crisis, and violence. The project emerged from a deeply personal struggle with depression and the Turkish concept ofhüzünor profound melancholy. Searching for perspective, she looked back to the 19th century, finding inspiration in Flaubert’s lifelong devotion to his craft. She says, when she was struggling with depression and anxiety, or hüzün in Turkish, meaning a deep melancholy. “In the middle of a world shaped by wars and violence, division, climate crisis, technological uncertainties, you find yourself asking, ‘What is the meaning of shutting yourself in a small room and worrying about the perfect synonym?’” she says. “Is there any, yet it also started from “a very personal place”. I wanted to take a closer look at this question – creativity in a time of crisis.”.
The novel diverges from traditional biography by reimagining Flaubert’s life through the perspectives of the women who surrounded him, including his nursemaid Julie, his mother, his mistress Louise Colet, and George Sand. By also incorporating unconventional narrators like a camel named Jamilah and Emma Bovary herself, Shafak aims to move beyond a singular viewpoint. She noted that while she initially intends to keep her writing minimalist, her upbringing and various cultural influences inevitably lead to the complex, interconnected narratives she is known for. Without Flaubert there would have been no Marcel Proust or James Joyce – most of his life was spent toiling in obscurity, while Flaubert is now considered the godfather of the modern novel – as Nabokov said.
Shafak shares significant parallels with the French author, including a childhood marked by feelings of displacement. Born in Strasbourg in 1971 to Turkish parents, she experienced her parents’ divorce early on and was raised by her maternal grandmother in Ankara. Like Flaubert, whose father was a detached figure, Shafak endured a period of estrangement from her own father, an academic who started a new family. These early experiences of “being the other” fostered a lifelong affinity for books, which became her primary source of companionship during her nomadic upbringing in Madrid, Jordan, and Germany. Including his own family members, it is this that interests Shafak. “The book is about a lonely boy who was misunderstood by almost everyone around him. As a disappointment, treated as ‘the other’, he was regarded as a failure. The novel is dedicated to anyone who may have felt similarly treated. “I wanted to be able to say, ‘you’re my brother, you’re my sister’.
Beyond their shared personal histories, both authors have faced legal challenges regarding their work. Flaubert was prosecuted for obscenity overMadame Bovaryin 1857, while Shafak faced charges in 2006 for the “public denigration of Turkishness” inThe Bastard of Istanbulfollowing her writing on the Armenian genocide.
Despite her international success, Shafak remains an introvert who prefers the solitude of a study. She admits that finishing a book brings her grief rather than satisfaction, as she finds it difficult to part with her characters. Often listening to the same song on a loop dozens of times while writing, she views her work as a pursuit of “shared humanity.” As someone who has faced threats for her public commentary, she expresses frustration with the growing cynicism toward intellectualism in the UK and US, emphasizing that her goal is not to project hubris, but to advocate for the value of the intellect and voice in public life. In person, she also listens intently and smiles often, despite the seriousness of her words.
