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In One Brief Moment All Eternity
  • Published: 20 October 2026
  • ISBN: 9780241745953
  • Imprint: Viking Fiction
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 400
  • RRP: $38.00

In One Brief Moment All Eternity

Formats & editions
Tr. Paperback
20 Oct 2026
Hardback
15 Nov 2026
EBook
15 Oct 2026
Audiobook
15 Oct 2026
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The new novel from the Booker-shortlisted, internationally bestselling author

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.
  • Published: 20 October 2026
  • ISBN: 9780241745953
  • Imprint: Viking Fiction
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 400
  • RRP: $38.00
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About the author

Elif Shafak

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist, whose work has been translated into fifty-seven languages. The author of twenty books, fourteen of which are novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak's previous novel, THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY, was the UK’s bestselling literary hardback novel of 2025, selling over 500,000 copies. Her work has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, amongst others, and she is currently nominated for ‘Author of the Year’ at the British Book Awards. Elif Shafak was appointed President of the Royal Society of Literature in 2025. Her books have sold several million copies worldwide.
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Also by Elif Shafak

There are Rivers in the Sky
The Island of Missing Trees
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World
The Forty Rules of Love
Three Daughters of Eve
The Architect's Apprentice
The Bastard of Istanbul
See all

Praise for In One Brief Moment All Eternity

A unique and powerful voice in world literature

IAN MCEWAN

Elif Shafak approaches the world with grace, lyricism, and courage

VIET THANH NGUYEN

Elif Shafak discovers the epic in the tiny, the global in the local, the love in the loss, the history in the momentary

COLUM McCANN

Elif Shafak is a master storyteller

SAFIYA SINCLAIR

Elif Shafak is one of the great writers of our time

PETER FRANKOPAN

Elif Shafak ties together diverse time periods and places in a way that seems both natural and wonderfully unexpected

MARY BEARD

Make place for Elif Shafak on your bookshelf. Make place for her in your heart too. You won't regret it

ARUNDHATI ROY

One of our most evocative storytellers working today

iPAPER

One of the best writers in the world today

HANIF KUREISHI

One of the world's most exhilirating storytellers

OBSERVER

Shafak is a novelist whose interest in mapping the intricately related world and its history goes beyond literary device

GUARDIAN

Shafak is that rare alchemist who can mix grains of tragedy and delight without diminishing the savour of either

THE WASHINGTON POST

Shafak writes with vision, bravery and compassion

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

Shafak’s imagination is a wonder: bold, capacious, beautiful and wise

KATIE KITAMURA

Shafak’s writing is poised and expressed, remarkable for its charm and lyricism

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

There's an elegance to Shafak's storytelling that always draws me

BONNIE GARMUS