Michael
Elif Shafak is one of my favorite writers, and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World lives up to everything I hoped it would be.
Part 1, titled The End deals with Tequila Leila’s last few minutes of consciousness after her heart stops beating, but before her brain has died. She has been murdered. During this time Leila took me on a journey through her life. She remembers in a fragmented way her childhood, her abuse, her journey to Istanbul from a town in the east of Turkey, her time as a sex worker, her happy marriage and finally her death. She has five friends all of whom are outcasts of one kind or another. Shafak has managed to make these characters as “alive” and real as Leila, the main character.
This novel, which paints a vivid picture of Istanbul, is about the family a person chooses, rather than the family you are born into. Leila and her five friends are a family.
Part 2 is called “The Body” and Part 3 “The Soul.” Any more information on these two parts would contain too many spoilers!
As always, Shafak’s writing has a wonderful flow to it. Her love for Istanbul and her home country shines through, while she freely acknowledges (in this novel) the corruption, poverty, and crime of the city. I don’t know how she does it.
And finally, she has created in Leila a character who has suffered in some horrible ways has nevertheless kept within her a core of kindness, compassion, and understanding the human condition.
What a great way to start 2026!
Elif Shafak is one of my favorite writers, and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World lives up to everything I hoped it would be.
Part 1, titled The End deals with Tequila Leila’s last few minutes of consciousness after her heart stops beating, but before her brain has died. She has been murdered. During this time Leila took me on a journey through her life. She remembers in a fragmented way her childhood, her abuse, her journey to Istanbul from a town in the east of Turkey, her time as a sex worker, her happy marriage and finally her death. She has five friends all of whom are outcasts of one kind or another. Shafak has managed to make these characters as “alive” and real as Leila, the main character.
This novel, which paints a vivid picture of Istanbul, is about the family a person chooses, rather than the family you are born into. Leila and her five friends are a family.
Part 2 is called “The Body” and Part 3 “The Soul.” Any more information on these two parts would contain too many spoilers!
As always, Shafak’s writing has a wonderful flow to it. Her love for Istanbul and her home country shines through, while she freely acknowledges (in this novel) the corruption, poverty, and crime of the city. I don’t know how she does it.
And finally, she has created in Leila a character who has suffered in some horrible ways has nevertheless kept within her a core of kindness, compassion, and understanding the human condition.
What a great way to start 2026!