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The Forty Rules of Love
The Forty Rules of Love
Dec 3, 2025 4:01 AM

Author:Elif Shafak

The Forty Rules of Love

The international bestseller from the author of the Booker-shortlisted novel, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World, The Forty Rules of Love is part of our Penguin Essentials series which spotlights the very best of our modern classics

*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. . .

'The past and present fit together beautifully in a passionate defence of passion itself' The Times

'Colourfully woven and beguilingly intelligent' Daily Telegraph

*** ELIF SHAFAK'S NEW NOVEL, THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY, IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW ***

Reviews

A gorgeous, jeweled, luxurious book

—— The Times

With its timely, thought-provoking message . . . The Forty Rules of Love deserves to be a global publishing phenomenon

—— Independent

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

Pacy...and packed with action

—— Sunday Times

Breathes new life into the darkest and most dramatic of times

—— Star

Compelling reading

—— Woman and Home

Atmospheric and at times incandescent

—— Michelle Hart , Los Angeles Times

Cline's writing at its very best - hypnotically propulsive, viscerally disquieting, and moving in the most unpredictable ways

—— Doug Battersby , Financial Times

The tension never wavers . . . This is rich material for Cline, who trains a chilly eye on the preposterous affluence and exclusivity of that part of the world

—— Emma Brockes , Guardian

The Girls was exceptional; The Guest...is even better... Compulsively readable... The Guest is as refreshing as a dip in a cool pool on a hot day

—— i

The Guest... cements Cline's place as one of America's great contemporary stylists

—— Arin Keeble , Guardian

As bracing as saltwater... Cline possesses unmistakable talent; her bursts of genuine originality and startling insight make that clear

—— Ann Manov , Daily Telegraph

A tale of the ultimate grifter. Doused in ambiguity and foreboding

—— Imy Brighty-Potts , Independent

A new tense summer adventure

—— Stylist

This unsettling but gripping novel takes us deep into the mind of a woman living a shadowy half-life

—— Vanessa Berridge , Daily Mirror

Crucial reading for any young woman

—— Alex Peake-Tomkinson , Evening Standard

Undeniably compelling and atmospheric... a poolside-worthy page-turner

—— Sunday Express

A taut, tense novel... The Guest is a strong follow-up... Her [Cline's] prose is limpid and propulsive, sustaining an atmosphere of dread.

—— Economist

[An] arresting observational eye

—— Alex Clark , Financial Times

Cline has a crime writer's gift for revelatory storytelling, ramping up tension like an HBO pro

—— Big Issue

A searing portrayal of the precariat? Or a slick summer thriller? The answer is: both . . . you won't be able to look away

—— Laura Battle , Financial Times

Supremely readable... propulsive

—— Markie Robson , Tablet, *Novel of the Week*

A dream-like, foreboding novel and worthy follow-up to the sensation The Girls

—— i

The talented Ms. Cline . . . Her prose is drifty and wire-taut, easy on the eye, with an awful undertow of unease that never lets up. The pathology brilliantly observed by The Guest would not feel so edgy if it were not perilously close to an aspirational ideal

—— GEOFF DYER

I loved every moment of The Guest: the intensity, the control, the atmosphere, the psychological escalation, the astonishing social observation, the profound and devastating visions of the void achieved with flicks of the wrist, the way it lets nobody off the hook and yet is not without deep humanity

—— SAM LIPSYTE

Heady scent of hotsummers and dark secrets

—— The Times 'Best Books of 2023'

The wealthy clique depicted in Cline's unsettling second novel is by turns boorish and menacing - but you won't be able to look away

—— Financial Times, *Summer Reads of 2023*

A beach read that ticks all the boxes

—— Stephanie Cross , Daily Mail

[The Guest’s] atmosphere is equally apprehensive [as The Girls] and Cline’s eye for the fragility of insider-outsiders is as gimlet-sharp as before

—— Financial Times, *Books of the Year*

The Guest… [is] as relentlessly spellbinding as her debut

—— New Statesman, *Books of the Year*

Either/Or is extremely funny and delightfully ludic, as it probes the very act of reading from the point of view of confused university student Selin.

—— Anakana Schofield, Irish Times, Books of the Year 2022

I was desperately looking forward to Elif Batuman's Either/Or, and it more than lived up to it.

—— Samir Chadha , White Review, *Books of the Year*

Re-encountering Selin...felt like being reunited with an old friend.

—— Helen Charman , White Review, *Books of the Year*

Hilarious.

—— Alice Hattrick , White Review, *Books of the Year*

I greatly enjoyed the comic zing of Elif Batuman's delightful Either/Or

—— Megan Hunter , White Review, *Books of the Year*

Witty, intelligent and funny... [Selin's] inner monologue is addictive enough to read a thousand more pages of, and I can only cross my fingers that this isn't the last instalment of the series.

—— Crack

Just as funny and self-aware and clever as The Idiot.

—— Jessica Zhan Mei Yu , White Review, *Books of the Year*

Funny, wry and insightful

—— The Times, *Summer Reads of 2023*

Laugh out loud…hilarious and thoughtful

—— Times Literary Supplement, *Books of the Year*
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