I learned about The Forty Rules of Love, by Elif Shafak, from More magazine's February issue. Here's the blurb:
In this appealing fable, Turkish author Elif Shafak toggles between
characters from different times: a modern American housewife and a
thirteenth-century poet.Ella Rubinstein is unhappily married when she takes a job at a
literary agency. There she finds a manuscript about the poet Rumi by a
writer named Aziz Zahara. Zahara’s meditations on love enchant Ella,
and the two begin a flirtatious correspondence: “Love came to Ella as
suddenly and brusquely as if a stone had been hurled from out of
nowhere into the tranquil pond of her life.”The universal theme is the struggle between the rational mind and
the aching heart. Shafak’s heroine yields to the latter and never looks
back.
Here is more from BookSmith about Shafak (who is a bestselling author in Turkey) and The Forty Rules of Love. I hadn't heard of her before, but she is quite well-known.
Has anyone read any Elif Shafak before? Has anyone read The Forty Rules of Love yet? There aren't many blogger reviews out there.