Londres, 1840. Arthur, un garçon à la mémoire prodigieuse né sur les rives de la Tamise, est engagé comme apprenti dans une imprimerie. Bientôt, son monde s'ouvre bien au-delà des taudis de la capitale anglaise, vers un autre fleuve, le Tigre, et une ancienne cité de Mésopotamie qui abrite les fragments d'un poème oublié. Turquie, 2014. Chassées de leur village au bord du Tigre, Naryn, une petite fille yézidie, et sa grand-mère entreprennent un long voyage, traversant des terres en guerre dans l'espoir d'atteindre la vallée sacrée de leur peuple, en Irak, pour que Naryn y soit baptisée. Londres, 2018. Zaleekhah, hydrologue fascinée par la mémoire de l'eau, emménage dans une péniche pour échapper à la faillite de son mariage. C'est alors qu'un curieux livre qui la ramène à ses origines vient chambouler son existence. Avec ce roman éblouissant, une traversée des siècles et des cultures suivant trois destinées entrelacées par le cours imprévisible de l'eau, Elif Shafak s'impose comme l'une des plus grandes conteuses de notre époque.
A l'aube de ses quarante ans, Ella Rubinstein,
à qui tout semble sourire, se demande si elle
n'est pas passée à côté d'elle-même. Décidée
à reprendre une activité professionnelle, elle
est engagée comme lectrice par un agent
littéraire. Sa première mission : rédiger une
note sur un manuscrit signé Aziz Z. Zahara.
Ce roman, qui retrace la rencontre entre le
poète Rûmi et le plus célèbre derviche du
monde musulman, Shams de Tabriz, va être
une révélation pour Ella. Au fil des pages, elle
découvre le soufisme, le refus des conventions
et la splendeur de l'amour. Cette histoire se
révèle être le miroir de la sienne. Aziz -
comme Shams l'a fait pour Rûmi sept siècles
auparavant - serait-il venu la libérer ?
Chez les Kazanci, Turcs d'Istanbul, les femmes
sont hautes en couleurs, aiment l'amour et
parlent avec les djinns, tandis que les hommes
s'envolent trop tôt pour l'au-delà ou pour
l'Amérique, comme l'oncle Mustafa. Chez les
Tchakhmakhchian, Arméniens émigrés aux
États-Unis, quel que soit le genre auquel on
appartient, on est très attaché à son identité
et à ses traditions.
Le divorce de Barsam et Rose, puis le
remariage de celle-ci avec un Turc suscitent
l'indignation générale. Quand, Amy, la fille de
Rose et de Barsam, désireuse de comprendre
ses origines, gagne en secret Istanbul, elle est
hébergée par la chaleureuse famille de son
beau-père. L'amitié naissante entre Amy et la
jeune Asya Kazanci, la « bâtarde », va faire
voler en éclats les secrets les mieux gardés.
Ce roman commence par un cri. Ce cri, interminable, est celui que lance Ada, adolescente de 16 ans, en plein cours d'histoire dans un lycée londonien. Ce roman se termine par un rêve, celui d'une renaissance. Entre les deux a lieu la rencontre du Grec Kostas Kazantzakis et d'une jeune fille turque, Defne, en 1974, dans une Chypre déchirée par la guerre civile. De sa prose puissante, Elif Shafak nous conte l'histoire d'un amour interdit dans un climat de haine et de violence qui balaie tout sur son passage - avec l'espoir, tout de même, de libérer la parole des générations précédentes.
Et si notre esprit fonctionnait encore quelques instants après notre mort ? 10 minutes et 38 secondes exactement. C'est ce qui arrive à Leila, jeune prostituée brutalement assassinée dans une rue d'Istanbul. En attendant que l'on retrouve son corps, jeté par ses meurtriers dans une poubelle, ces quelques précieuses minutes sont l'occasion pour elle de se remémorer tous les événements qui l'ont conduite d'Anatolie jusqu'aux quartiers les plus malfamés de la ville. C'est ainsi que la romancière Elif Shafak retrace le parcours de cette jeune fille de bonne famille dont le destin a basculé, nous contant, à travers elle, l'histoire de tant d'autres femmes dans la Turquie d'aujourd'hui.
Istanbul, au coeur de l'Empire ottoman, XVIe siècle. Le jeune Jahan débarque dans cette ville inconnue avec pour seul compagnon un magnifique éléphant blanc qu'il est chargé d'offrir au sultan Soliman le Magnifique. Chemin faisant, il rencontre des courtisans trompeurs et des faux amis, des gitans, des dompteurs d'animaux, ainsi que la belle et espiègle Mihrimah. Bientôt, il attire même l'attention de Sinan, l'architecte royal : une rencontre fortuite qui va changer le cours de son existence.
Peri est mariée à un riche promoteur. Au cours d'un grand dîner dans une somptueuse villa du Bosphore, chacun commente les événements dramatiques que vit la Turquie. Peri, elle, se remémore sa jeunesse, les affrontements entre son père laïc et sa mère très pieuse, puis entre ses deux amies lorsqu'elle était étudiante à Oxford : Shirin, Iranienne émancipée, et Mona, musulmane pratiquante et féministe. Elle repense aussi à Azur, le flamboyant professeur de philosophie qui les a réunies.Au fil des souvenirs, cette soirée fera surgir les impasses dans lesquelles se débat la société turque, coincée entre tradition et modernité.
From the Booker Prize finalist author of The Island of Missing Trees, an enchanting new tale about three characters living along two rivers, all under the shadow of one of the greatest epic poems of all time.
In Victorian London, an extraordinary child is born at the edge of the dirt-black Thames. When his brilliant memory earns him a spot as an apprentice at a printing press, the world opens up far beyond the slums and across the seas.
In 2014 in Turkey, Narin, a Yazidi girl living by the River Tigris, waits to be baptized. The ceremony is cruelly interrupted, and soon she and her grandmother must journey across war-torn lands in the hope of reaching the sacred valley of their people.
In 2018 in London, broken-hearted Zaleekhah, a hydrologist, moves to a houseboat on the Thames to escape the wreckage of her marriage - until an unexpected connection to her homeland changes everything.
A dazzling feat of storytelling from one of the greatest writers of our time, one that spans centuries and continents, this is the story of one lost poem, two great rivers and three remarkable lives - all connected by a single drop of water.
Jeune immigrée kurde, Esma porte une histoire familiale entachée de sang. Décidée à comprendre, elle retrace sur trois générations le lourd destin qui la lie à ses ancêtres ; des rives de l'Euphrate à l'Angleterre, quand l'émancipation et la quête de liberté se heurtent aux traditions, Esma démêle lentement les fils de l'amour et de la haine...
" Un magnifique bijou, un livre somptueux. " The Times Traduit de l'anglais (Turquie) par Dominique Letellier
A rich, magical new novel 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. The taverna is the only place that Ko
The international bestseller from the Booker-shortlisted author of The Island of Missing Trees and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World
* 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.
'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
*** ELIF SHAFAK'S NEW NOVEL, THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY, IS AVAILABLE NOW ***
A gripping and beautiful novel from Elif Shafak, Booker-shortlisted author of The Island of Missing Trees and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World
One rainy afternoon in Istanbul a woman walks into a doctor's surgery. 'I want an abortion,' she announces. She is nineteen years old, and unmarried. What happens that afternoon will change her life, and the lives of everyone around her.
Twenty years later, Asya Kazanci lives with her extended family in Istanbul. A mysterious curse causes all the men to die by the age of 41, so it is a house of women, among them her beautiful, rebellious mother, Zeliha, clairvoyant Auntie Banu and bar-brawl widow, Auntie Cevriye. But when Asya's Armenian-American cousin Armanoush comes to stay, long hidden family secrets connected with Turkey's turbulent past begin to emerge.
'Wonderfully magical, incredible, breathtaking...will have you gasping with disbelief in the last few pages' Sunday Express
'A beautiful book, the finest I have read about Turkey' Irish Times
'Heartbreaking...the beauty of Islam pervades Shafak's book' Vogue
*** ELIF SHAFAK'S NEW NOVEL, THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY, IS AVAILABLE NOW ***
An intensely powerful new novel from the best-selling author of The Bastard of Istanbul and Honour - available for pre-order now '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 she works. Each memory, too, recalls the friends she made at each key moment in her life - friends who are now desperately trying to find her. . .
A dazzling and intricate tale from the Booker-shortlisted author of The Island of Missing Trees, and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World.
'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.
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.
The Architect's Apprentice is a magical, sweeping tale of one boy and his elephant caught up in a world of wonder and danger.
'A gorgeous picture of a city teeming with secrets, intrigue and romance' The Times
'Exuberant, epic and comic, fantastical and realistic . . . like all good stories it conveys deeper meanings about human experience' Financial Times
'Fascinating. A vigorous evocation of the Ottoman Empire at the height of its power' Sunday Times
'Intricate, multi-layered, resplendent, vividly evoked, beautifully written' Observer
*** ELIF SHAFAK'S NEW NOVEL, THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY, IS AVAILABLE NOW ***
Set across Istanbul and Oxford, from the 1980s to the present day, this is a sweeping tale of faith and friendship, tradition and modernity, love and an unexpected betrayal, from the winner of the prestigious Man Asian Literary Prize.
From award-winning writer Elif Shafak, the Orange Prize long-listed author of The Forty Rules of Love and The Architect's Apprentice , Honour is a tale of love, betrayal and clashing cultures. 'A powerful book; thoughtful, provoking and compassionate' Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat 'My mother died twice. I promised myself I would not let her story be forgotten . . .' Leaving her twin sister behind, Pembe leaves Turkey for love - following her husband Adem to London. There the Topraks hope to make new lives for themselves and their children. Yet, no matter how far they travel, the traditions and beliefs the Topraks left behind stay with them - carried in the blood. Their eldest is the boy Iskender, who remembers Turkey and feels betrayal deeper than most. His sister is Esma, who is loyal and true despite the pain and heartache. And, lastly, Yunus, who was born in London, and is shy and different. Trapped by the mistakes of the past, the Toprak children find their lives shattered and transformed by a brutal act of murder . . . A powerful novel set in Turkey and London in the 1970s, Honour explores pain and loss, loyalty and betrayal, the trials of the immigrant, the clash of tradition and modernity, as well as the love and heartbreak that too often tears families apart. 'Vivid storytelling... that explores the darkest aspects of faith and love' Sunday Telegraph 'Rich and wide as the Euphrates river along whose banks it begins and ends, Elif Shafak has woven with masterful care and compassion one immigrant family's heartbreaking story - a story nurtured in the terrible silences between men and women trying to grow within ancient ways, all the while growing past them. I loved this book' Sarah Blake, author of The Postmistress '[Elif Shafak] joins writers such as Hanif Kureishi, Zadie Smith, Monica Ali, Aamer Hussein, Andrea Levy, Hanan al-Shakyh and Leila Aboulela, who offer us fictional glimpses of London's Others' The Independent
From award-winning writer Elif Shafak, the Orange Prize long-listed author of The Forty Rules of Love and The Architect's Apprentice , The Gaze is a humorous and carnivalesque exploration of what it means to look and be looked at... An obese woman and her lover, a dwarf, are sick of being stared at wherever they go and so decide to reverse roles. The man goes out wearing make-up and the woman draws a moustache on her face. This elegant, unforgettable novel explores our desire to look at others. 'Beautifully evoked' The Times 'Original and compelling' TLS
Shortlisted for the 2005 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, Elif Shafak's The Flea Palace is a moving and highly original novel about a group of individuals who live in the same building and who together become embroiled in a mystery.
By turns comic and tragic, The Flea Palace is an outstandingly original novel driven by an overriding sense of social justice.
Bonbon Palace was once a stately apartment block in Istanbul. Now it is a sadly dilapidated home to ten wildly different individuals and their families.
There's a womanizing, hard-drinking academic with a penchant for philosophy; a 'clean freak' and her lice-ridden daughter; a lapsed Jew in search of true love; and a charmingly naïve mistress whose shadowy past lurks in the building. When the rubbish at Bonbon Palace is stolen, a mysterious sequence of events unfolds that result in a soul-searching quest for truth.
'Picaresque' Guardian
'Hyperactive and hilarious' Independent
*** ELIF SHAFAK'S NEW NOVEL, THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY, IS AVAILABLE NOW ***
'A handbook for the modern world' i Paper
'Elegant ... calm and generous' Mary Beard, Guardian
The must-read, pocket-sized Big Think book of 2020
One of the Guardian's 'Best Books to Inspire Compassion'
One of Independent's Books of the Month
A Cosmopolitan 'Revolutionary Read'
Ours is the age of contagious anxiety. We feel overwhelmed by the events around us, by injustice, by suffering, by an endless feeling of crisis. So, how can we nurture the parts of ourselves that hope, trust and believe in something better? And how can we stay sane in this age of division?
In this powerful, uplifting plea for conscious optimism, Booker Prize-nominated novelist and activist Elif Shafak draws on her own memories and delves into the power of stories to bring us together. In the process, she reveals how listening to each other can nurture democracy, empathy and our faith in a kinder and wiser future.
Postpartum depression affects millions of new mothers every year, and - like most of its victims - the author never expected to be one of them. But after the birth of her first child in 2006, the internationally bestselling Turkish author remembers how "for the first time my adult life ...words wouldn't speak to me".
A WATERSTONES BEST POLITICS BOOK OF 2024
This is an exceptional moment for democracy.
In the year of elections, read Margaret Atwood, Mary Beard, Lea Ypi, Elif Shafak and more on what democracy means - and why it matters.
In 2024, nearly half the world will take part in a national election, with billions heading to the polls. It's a thrilling, unprecedented opportunity for change - yet democracy is also under threat.
Women are at the forefront of the fight for democratic rights, as well as being the most vulnerable when those rights disappear. Here, eleven extraordinary women - leaders, philosophers, historians, writers and activists - explore democracy's power to uplift our societies. Between its ancient origins and its modern challenges, they share a vision for a better future - one we can build together.
La nueva novela de la finalista del Premio Booker, con más de 300.000 lectores: «Preciosa y desgarradora» (Margaret Atwood) «Maravillosa». Mary Beard * «Una voz única en la literatura mundial». Ian McEwan * «Un libro que te transforma». Naomi Klein * «Shafak crea con sus palabras un nuevo hogar para los lectores». Colum McCann NOMINADA AL WOMEN''S PRIZE FINALISTA DE LOS PREMIOS COSTA BOOK En un convulso 1974, mientras el ejército turco ocupa el norte de Chipre, Kostas, un griego cristiano, y Defne, una turca musulmana, se reúnen en secreto bajo las vigas ennegrecidas de la taberna La Higuera Feliz, donde cuelgan ristras de ajos, cebollas y pimientos. Allí, lejos del fragor de la guerra, crece a través de una cavidad en el techo una higuera, testigo del amor de los dos jóvenes, pero también de sus desencuentros, de la destrucción de Nicosia y de la trágica separación de los amantes. Décadas más tarde, en el norte de Londres, Ada Kazantzakis acaba de perder a su madre. A sus dieciséis años, nunca ha visitado la isla en la que nacieron sus padres y está desesperada por desenredar años de secretos, división y silencio. La única conexión que tiene con la tierra de sus antepasados es un Ficus carica que crece en el jardín de su casa.
Comment concilier l'écriture et la maternité ? Dans ce roman polyphonique, Elif Shafak fait parler les voix intérieures qui depuis toujours l'ont questionnée et raconte sa propre expérience. Miss Cynique Intello, miss Ego Ambition, miss Intelligence pratique, Dame Derviche, Maman Gâteau et Miss Satin Volupté sont autant de petites créatures mentales et capricieuses, qui tentent de s'imposer à l'esprit d'une trentenaire en mal de repères. Convoquant de grandes figures littéraires telles que Simone de Beauvoir ou Virginia Wolf, Elif Shafak conte avec humour et érudition, la bataille rangée de la femmme d'hier, d'aujourd'hui et de demain, pour nous dire que tout lui est possible.
" Ce Lait noir, brillant, énergique et humoristique, nous, à Elle, on le proclamerait volontiers d'intérêt public. "
Isabelle Lortholary, Elle
