In One Brief Moment All Eternity

Amidst the chaos of war, Gustave Flaubert somehow created the most scandalous female character literature has ever known: Madame Bovary. How? And what if, 175 years later, she – and other women whose voices history has overlooked – could pluck the quill from his hands and dream up a new story?

In One Brief Moment All Eternity is a luminous reinvention of an iconic male writer told through the lives of the women – both real and fictional – who shaped him, from a devoted nursemaid, to an Egyptian dancer, to a literary heroine who refuses to be silenced. Through their voices, visionary author Elif Shafak offers both an intimate portrait of the life and loves of a great artist and an epic meditation on storytelling itself: who gets remembered, who gets erased, and how can literature endure in the darkest days of political upheaval, injustice and bloodshed? When the world feels broken, how do you find the hope to carry on?

Rich, transporting and illuminating, spanning decades and continents, from revolutionary Paris to Ottoman Istanbul, Cairo, Palestine and Beirut, In One Brief Moment All Eternity is a dazzling love letter to literature, to history, and to the greater spirit of humanity itself.