Elif Shafak - Free Library Land Online

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Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within

An acclaimed Turkish novelist's personal account of balancing a writer's life with a mother's life. After the birth of her first child in 2006, Turkish writer Elif Shafek suffered from postpartum depression that triggered a profound personal crisis. Infused with guilt, anxiety, and bewilderment about whether she could ever be a good mother, Shafak stopped writing and lost her faith in words altogether. In this elegantly written memoir, she retraces her journey from free-spirited, nomadic artist to dedicated by emotionally wrought mother. Identifying a constantly bickering harem of women who live inside of her, each with her own characteristics--the cynical intellectual, the goal-oriented go-getter, the practical-rational, the spiritual, the maternal, and the lustful--she craves harmony, or at least a unifying identity. As she intersperses her own experience with the lives of prominent authors such as Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, Alice Walker, Ayn Rand, and Zelda Fitzgerald, Shafak looks for a solution to the inherent conflict between artistic creation and responsible parenting. With searing emotional honesty and an incisive examination of cultural mores within patriarchal societies, Shafak has rendered an important work about literature, motherhood, and spiritual well-being.]]> Sun, 14 Oct 2007 09:57:38 +0300 Three Daughters of Eve https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/41245-three_daughters_of_eve.html https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/41245-three_daughters_of_eve.html

The stunning, timely new novel from the acclaimed, internationally bestselling author of The Architect's Apprentice and The Bastard of Istanbul. Peri, a married, wealthy, beautiful Turkish woman, is on her way to a dinner party at a seaside mansion in Istanbul when a beggar snatches her handbag. As she wrestles to get it back, a photograph falls to the ground -- an old polaroid of three young women and their university professor. A relic from a past -- and a love -- Peri had tried desperately to forget. Three Daughters of Eve is set over an evening in contemporary Istanbul, as Peri arrives at the party and navigates the tensions that simmer in this crossroads country between East and West, religious and secular, rich and poor. Over the course of the dinner, and amidst an opulence that is surely ill-begotten, terrorist attacks occur across the city. Competing in Peri's mind however are the memories invoked by her almost-lost polaroid, of the time years earlier when she was sent abroad for the first time, to attend Oxford University. As a young woman there, she had become friends with the charming, adventurous Shirin, a fully assimilated Iranian girl, and Mona, a devout Egyptian-American. Their arguments about Islam and feminism find focus in the charismatic but controversial Professor Azur, who teaches divinity, but in unorthodox ways. As the terrorist attacks come ever closer, Peri is moved to recall the scandal that tore them all apart. Elif Shafak is the number one bestselling novelist in her native Turkey, and her work is translated and celebrated around the world. In Three Daughters of Eve, she has given us a rich and moving story that humanizes and personalizes one of the most profound sea changes of the modern world.]]> Sat, 14 Oct 2017 09:57:39 +0300 The Gaze https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/41242-the_gaze.html https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/41242-the_gaze.html

A new title from the author of The Flea Palace, shortlisted for the Independent Prize for Foreign Fiction and chosen for Waterstone’s 2005 Summer Reading promotion. In her prize-wining novel, The Gaze, Shafak explores the subject of body image and desirability. An overweight woman and her lover, a dwarf, are sick of being stared at wherever they go, and decide to reverse roles. The man goes out wearing make up, and the woman draws a moustache on her face. The couple deal with the gaze of passers by in different ways. The woman wants to hide away from the world, while the man meets them head on, even compiling his own ‘Dictionary of the Gaze’ to show the powerful effects a simple look can have. The narrative of The Gaze is intertwined with the dwarf’s dictionary entries and the story of a bizarre freak-show organized in Istanbul in the 1880s as Shafak explores the damage which can be done by our simple desire to look at other people.]]> Thu, 14 Oct 1999 09:57:38 +0300 The Forty Rules of Love https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/41239-the_forty_rules_of_love.html https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/41239-the_forty_rules_of_love.html

Ella Rubenstein is forty years old and unhappily married when she takes a job as a reader for a literary agent -- and suddenly her life is transformed. Her first assignment is to read a novel about the ancient Sufi mystic, Rumi, who was transformed by the whirling dervish into a passionate poet and advocate of love. Slowly she realizes that his thirteenth-century life is starting to mirror her own, and in doing so it opens up exciting opportunities for her to embrace the dervish's timeless message for herself. This is a mesmerizing novel about finding love and inspiration in the most unlikely of places.]]> Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:57:38 +0300 The Architect's Apprentice https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/41243-the_architects_apprentice.html https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/41243-the_architects_apprentice.html

The Architect's Apprentice is a dazzling and intricate tale from Elif Shafak, bestselling author of The Bastard of Istanbul.

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'There were six of us: the master, the apprentices and the white elephant. We built everything together...' *

Sixteenth century Istanbul: a stowaway arrives in the city bearing an extraordinary gift for the Sultan. The boy is utterly alone in a foreign land, with no worldly possessions to his name except Chota, a rare white elephant destined for the palace menagerie.*
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So begins an epic adventure that will see young Jahan rise from lowly origins to the highest ranks of the Sultan's court. Along the way he will meet deceitful courtiers and false friends, gypsies, animal tamers, and the beautiful, mischievous Princess Mihrimah. He will journey on Chota's back to the furthest corners of the Sultan's kingdom and back again. And one day he will catch the eye of the royal architect, Sinan, a chance encounter destined to change Jahan's fortunes forever.*
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Filled with all the colour of the Ottoman Empire, when Istanbul was the teeming centre of civilisation, The Architect's Apprentice is a magical, sweeping tale of one boy and his elephant caught up in a world of wonder and danger.*
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'Fascinating and gripping' Rosamund Lupton on Honour *

*Elif Shafak is the acclaimed author of nine novels including The Bastard of Istanbul, The Forty Rules of Love and Honour, and is the most widely read female writer in Turkey. Her work has been translated into more than forty languages and she contributes to numerous international publications, including the New York Times, Financial Times, Guardian, Independent, Newsweek and Time magazine. She is also a public speaker working with The London Speaker Bureau and is a TED Global speaker. Elif Shafak has previously been longlisted for the Orange Prize, the Baileys Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Award, and shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. She is based in London with her two children. www.elifshafak.com]]> Mon, 14 Oct 2013 09:57:38 +0300 The Flea Palace https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/41240-the_flea_palace.html https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/41240-the_flea_palace.html

Set within a once-stately apartment block in Istanbul, The Flea Palace tells the story of Bonbon Palace, built by Russian noble émigré Pavel Antipov for his wife Agripina at the end of the Tsarist reign. It is now sadly dilapidated, flea-infested, and home to ten very different individuals and their families. Elif Shafak gives us a bird's-eye insight into each apartment, and we see their comic and tragic lives unfold.]]> Mon, 14 Oct 2002 09:57:38 +0300 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/487688-10_minutes_38_seconds_in_this_strange_world.html https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/487688-10_minutes_38_seconds_in_this_strange_world.html

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019

'One of the best writers in the world today' Hanif Kureishi

'Haunting, moving, beautifully written - and based by an extraordinary cast of characters who capture the diversity of modern Turkey. A masterpiece' Peter Frankopan 'In the first minute following her death, Tequila Leila's consciousness began to ebb, slowly and steadily, like a tide receding from the shore. Her brain cells, having run out of blood, were now completely deprived of oxygen. But they did not shut down. Not right away...'For Leila, each minute after her death brings a sensuous memory: the taste of spiced goat stew, sacrificed by her father to celebrate the long-awaited birth of a son; the sight of bubbling vats of lemon and sugar which the women use to wax their legs while the men attend mosque; the scent of cardamom coffee that Leila shares with a handsome student in the brothel where...]]> Mon, 18 Nov 2019 14:11:21 +0200 Honor https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/41244-honor.html https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/41244-honor.html Honor

An honor killing shatters and transforms the lives of Turkish immigrants in 1970s London Internationally bestselling Turkish author Elif Shafak’s new novel is a dramatic tale of families, love, and misunderstandings that follows the destinies of twin sisters born in a Kurdish village. While Jamila stays to become a midwife, Pembe follows her Turkish husband, Adem, to London, where they hope to make new lives for themselves and their children. In London, they face a choice: stay loyal to the old traditions or try their best to fit in. After Adem abandons his family, Iskender, the eldest son, must step in and become the one who will not let any shame come to the family name. And when Pembe begins a chaste affair with a man named Elias, Iskender will discover that you could love someone with all your heart and yet be ready to hurt them. Just published to great acclaim in England, Honor is a powerful, gripping exploration of guilt and innocence, loyalty and betrayal, and the trials of the immigrant, as well as the love and heartbreak that too often tear families apart.]]> Sun, 14 Oct 2012 09:57:39 +0300 There Are Rivers in the Sky https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/696889-there_are_rivers_in_the_sky.html https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/696889-there_are_rivers_in_the_sky.html

From the Booker Prize finalist, author of The Island of Missing Trees, an enchanting new tale about three characters living along two great rivers, all connected by a single drop of water.
"Make place for Elif Shafak on your bookshelf. Make place for her in your heart too. You won't regret it."—Arundhati Roy, winner of the Booker Prize
In the ancient city of Nineveh, on the bank of the River Tigris, King Ashurbanipal of Mesopotamia, erudite but ruthless, built a great library that would crumble with the end of his reign. From its ruins, however, emerged a poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, that would infuse the existence of two rivers and bind together three lives.
In 1840 London, Arthur is born beside the stinking, sewage-filled River Thames. With an abusive, alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother, Arthur’s only chance of escaping destitution is his brilliant memory. When his gift earns him a spot as an apprentice at a leading...]]> Sun, 29 Sep 2024 09:25:55 +0300 The Island of Missing Trees https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/621600-the_island_of_missing_trees.html https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/621600-the_island_of_missing_trees.html

"A wise novel of love and grief, roots and branches, displacement and home, faith and belief. Balm for our bruised times." -David Mitchell, author of Utopia Avenue

A rich, magical new novel on belonging and identity, love and trauma, nature and renewal, from the Booker-shortlisted author of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World.
Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home. In the taverna, hidden beneath garlands of garlic, chili peppers and creeping honeysuckle, Kostas and Defne grow in their forbidden love for each other. A fig tree stretches through a cavity in the roof, and this tree bears witness to their hushed, happy meetings and eventually, to their silent, surreptitious departures. The tree is there when war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble, and when the teenagers vanish. Decades later, Kostas returns. He is a botanist...]]> Sun, 31 Oct 2021 18:30:57 +0200 The Bastard of Istanbul https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/440860-the_bastard_of_istanbul.html https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/440860-the_bastard_of_istanbul.html

Twenty years later, Asya Kazanci lives with her extended family in Istanbul. Due to a mysterious family curse, all the Kazanci men die in their early forties, so it is a house of women, among them Asya's beautiful, rebellious mother Zeliha, who runs a tattoo parlour; Banu, who has newly discovered herself as a clairvoyant; and Feride, a hypochondriac obsessed with impending disatstr. And when Asya's Armenian-American cousin Armanoush comes to stay, long-hidden family secrets connected with Turkey's turbulent past begin to emerge. Elif Shafak is one of Turkey's most acclaimed and outspoken novelists. She was born in 1971 and is the author of six novels, most recently The Saint of Incipient Insanities, The Gaze and The Flea Palace, and one work of non-fiction. She teaches at the University of Arizona and divides her time between the US and Istanbul.]]> Tue, 27 Nov 2007 20:47:50 +0200 The Happiness of Blond People (Penguin Specials) https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/512884-the_happiness_of_blond_people_penguin_specials.html https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/512884-the_happiness_of_blond_people_penguin_specials.html

The Happiness of Blond People (Penguin Specials)

Penguin Specials are designed to fill a gap. Written to be read over a long commute or a short journey, they are original and exclusively in digital form. This is Elif Shafak's examination of national identity."You know, I never understand. How come their children are so quiet and well disciplined?""Yeah," said the distressed father, his voice suddenly softer. "Blond children never cry, do they?"As Elif Shafak stands in line at the airport, she overhears a Turkish father expressing to a friend his bewilderment at the cultural differences he's experienced since immigrating to northern Europe. Is it true, she wonders, that the citizens of these countries are genuinely happier? Why do people leave their homes for other countries? And what lessons can we all learn, for the creation of truly harmonious societies, from the experiences of immigrants?In the light of the recent backlash against multiculturalism and the influx of millions of Muslims into Europe from the east, this...]]> Fri, 25 Nov 2011 15:44:44 +0200 Black Milk https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/440859-black_milk.html https://language.library.land/elif-shafak/440859-black_milk.html

A non fiction book Elif Shafak is the most popular woman writer in Turkey today. In her lyrical and deeply-personal book, Black Milk, she writes of the struggle between art and motherhood. Shafak tells of an imaginary “harem of small finger women” or tiny “Thumbelinas” who live within her and vie for dominance. All of her “finger women” are manifestations of different aspects of Shafak’s own personality struggling for control, as she wrestles with her decision to become a mother. The book was written after the birth of Shafak’s first child and long bout of post-partum depression. In the book, Shafak examines her own feelings and career against those of Sylvia Plath, Zelda Fitzgerald, Virginia Woolf, Ayn Rand, Simone de Beauvoir, and other female writers of note. Black Milk is original, humorous, and insightful – a must-read for all women who have ever felt the pull of more than one path.]]> Fri, 27 Nov 1998 20:47:50 +0200