*The international bestseller from the author of the Booker-shortlisted novel, 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 Shams of Tabriz, and his forty rules of life and love, her world is turned upside down. She embarks on a journey to meet the mysterious author of this work.It is a quest infused with Sufi mysticism and verse, taking Ella and us into an exotic world where faith and love are heartbreakingly explored. . .''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 ***