Book Review - The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak

There are certain books where you know you will like them even when you have read just 10 pages. There can be reasons behind it though, perhaps you have read the author before, or have found the narrative interesting, maybe the first para hooked you since the beginning or your instinct made you feel so. All these factors sum up what I feel for this story.

It was too much to see Rumi long for the alter ego, meanwhile taking part in the worldly things where he used to judge and help people but from a distance. And as Shams entered his life, things changed drastically overnight. Meanwhile, there is a parallel story going about Ella and Aziz Zahara. These two stories intermingle in such a way where you can’t stop comparing one character to another. This book is all about love in different forms, it doesn’t restrict itself to romance but love between father and children, between two friends, between husband and wife, between a teacher and his disciples and between two strangers.

There are many quotes in the book which make so much sense that you will feel you have gone through some, at some point, in your life and might stumble upon some. This book will bring out harmony within you. You will see the difficult phase of life and want to get rid of them just how it is described in the story, but that’s not how you deal with things. You got to give something up to gain something. Most of the times they are such small things that you wouldn’t even notice their absence, but our mind works in such a way that losing something in order to get something back feels like a tedious task. It had a calming effect on me as the time when I was reading it; I was troubled, and it did make me realise a few things over some time. So, you must read this book.

Rating - 5/5

Genre - Contemporary, Historical Fiction