- Published: 6 June 2019
- ISBN: 9780241979457
- Imprint: Penguin eBooks
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 320
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019
- Published: 6 June 2019
- ISBN: 9780241979457
- Imprint: Penguin eBooks
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 320
A brave and passionate novel
Paul Theroux on 'Bastard of Istanbul'
A rich, sensual novel... This is a novel that gives voice to the invisible, the untouchable, the abused and the damaged, weaving their painful songs into a thing of beauty.
Francesca Segal, Financial Times
A terrific book. Poetic, poignant, trenchant
Ian Rankin on 'Three Daughters of Eve'
A thoughtful, charming book that offers a connection to other worlds, perspectives and possibilities
Sunday Times on 'Three Daughters of Eve'
A truly captivating work of immense power and beauty
Philippe Sands
Elif Shafak brings into the written realm what so many others want to leave outside. Spend more than ten minutes and 38 seconds in this world of the estranged. Shafak makes a new home for us in words
Colum McCann
Elif Shafak's extraordinary Ten Minutes, 38 Seconds in this Strange World is a work of brutal beauty and consummate tenderness, a wild shout of life from out of the lower depths of destitution and prostitution, indeed from beyond the grave itself. Every page throbs with unruly vitality, the sense- saturating colours scents and sounds of raw Istanbul, all registered with poetic sharpness. It's a book which for all its ordeals is a profoundly moving, at times lyrical, celebration of humanity's obstinate fight for life against the steepest of odds
Simon Schama
Haunting, moving, beautifully written
Peter Frankopan
One of the best writers in the world today
Hanif Kureishi
Shafak is the most exciting Turkish novelist to reach western readers in years
Irish Times
A heartbreaking meditation on the ways in which social forces can destroy a life. Elif Shafak can be unsparing, lyrical, political, intimate... Several novels live in this one, and all of them are moving, generous and elegantly written
Juan Gabriel Vasquez
A vivid carnival of life and death, cruelty and kindness, love, politics and deep humanity. This is only possible in the hands of a consummate storyteller. Elif Shafak's lyrical command of language and narrative is breathtaking. Brilliant!
Helena Kennedy