#Blogtour The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak

The 40 Rules of Love has sold over 500,000 copies internationally and is one of Elif's most successful novels, a standout backlist title. Redesigned with a beautiful new package along with the rest of her backlist to tie in with the paperback publication of her latest novel There are Rivers in the Sky.

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak, published 3rd July 2025 by Penguin Uk.

About the Author

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist, whose work has been translated into fifty-six languages. The author of nineteen books, thirteen of which are novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak's last novel, The Island of Missing Trees, was a top ten Sunday Times bestseller, and was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and the Women's Prize for Fiction. Her novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize. There Are Rivers in the Sky is her latest novel. Follow @Elif_Safak on X

About the book

Ela Rubinstein has a husband, three teenage children, and a pleasant home. Everything that should make her confident and fulfi led. Yet there is an emptiness at the heart of Ela's life - an emptiness once fi led by love.

So when Ela 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. Compeled to embrace change, she embarks on a journey to meet the mysterious author. It is a quest infused with Sufi mysticism and verse, taking Ela 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.

Review

I think there was a side note of unfulfilled and unhappy people, especially women, who are susceptible to anything that looks like a solution to their problems It makes them vulnerable to persuasion and concepts that suggest a happier life, a better body, someone who loves and desires them.

It's easy to get swept away by the idea of something more when life has become a series of repetitive actions, emotional necessities and overall nothing more than societal expectations and daily routines.

It's an exploration of faith, spirituality and love - the Sufi concept or path of love. Whilst I admire the prose and the deep meaningful rules, I think it's a fallacy to believe that a life without love is of no account. The assumption that everyone encounters a love or love in general, is a gross overestimation of how everyone experiences life and relationships with the people around them.

It's novel of dual paths, that of Ela and then that of Rumi and Shams. Despite being centuries apart the three collide in thoughts, shared pathways and steering the course of their lives. The story lives a little in a hype bubble of its own creation.

Buy The Forty Rules of Love at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Penguin Uk, pub date 3rd July 2025. Buy at Amazon com.