“Mom, have you ever been in love?” Jeannette replied, a touch of contempt crept into her tone. “Because I love him, I think.” Jeannette`s tone was slightly condescending. “What did you mean then?” said David, still speaking with a fork. “I thought you were in love with me when we got married.” Forty-year-old Ella Rubenstein is an unhappy housewife with three children and an unfaithful husband, but her life begins to change dramatically when she takes a job as an editor for a literary agency. His first commission was a novel with the fascinating title Sweet Blasphemy about the thirteenth-century poet Rumi and his beloved Sufi teacher Shams of Tabriz. The author is an unknown first author, Aziz Zahara, who lives in Turkey. At first reluctant to pick up a book about a time and place so different from her own, Ella is soon fascinated by both the novel and the man who wrote it, with whom she begins an email flirtation. As she reads, she begins to wonder about the many ways in which she has chosen a conventional life without passion and true love. For forty years, Ella Rubinstein`s life has been made up of calm waters – a predictable sequence of habits, needs and preferences.

Although it was monotonous and ordinary in many ways, she hadn`t found it tiring. Over the past twenty years, every desire she had, every person she befriended, and every decision she made was filtered through her marriage. Her husband David was a successful dentist who worked hard and made a lot of money. She had always known that they weren`t connecting on a deep level, but connecting emotionally doesn`t have to be a priority on a married couple`s list, she thought, especially for a man and woman who have been married for so long. There were things more important than passion and love in a marriage, such as understanding, affection, compassion, and the most divine actions a person could perform, forgiveness. Love was secondary to all this. Unless you lived in romantic novels or movies where the protagonists were always larger than life and their love nothing less than a legend. “One novel within a novel, The Forty Rules of Love tells two parallel stories that are reflected in two very different cultures and seven centuries in between.” [9] It begins when a housewife, Ella, receives a book called Sweet Blasphemy for a review. [10] This book is about a thirteenth-century poet, Rumi, and his spiritual master, Shams. [9] The book presents Shams` forty rules of love at different intervals.

[11] [12] The story presented in the novel essentially speaks of “love and spirituality that explains what it means to follow one`s heart.” [13] I don`t think it`s a coincidence that Rumi`s voice appeals to more and more people around the world today. It is the kind of spirituality that does not exclude anyone, regardless of class, skin, religion and so on. It is a very inclusive, welcoming and universal voice that puts love at the center. From Rumi`s point of view, we are all connected. No one is excluded from this circle of love. In a time full of cultural prejudices, dogmas, fundamentalisms of all kinds and clashes, Rumi`s voice tells us something different, something much more essential and peaceful. But there is a void at the heart of Ella`s life – a void that was once filled with love. Thus, 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. They didn`t live in the same city.

Not even on the same continent. The two were not only miles apart, but also different than day and night. Her lifestyle was so different that it seemed impossible for her to bear the presence of the other, let alone fall in love. But it happened. And it happened quickly, so fast, that Ella didn`t have time to realize what was going on and be on her guard if you could ever be on your guard against love. Here is a middle-aged love story and the story of insiders of one of the great friendships of history, and on top of that the story of the struggle in medieval Islam between conservatives and Sufis. “I was in love with you,” Ella said, but couldn`t help but add, “at the time.” Really, what was wrong with being romantic? Ella was surprised. Since when is she so bored by romance? Unable to answer the questions that were pulling on the edges of her mind, she continued anyway. “Come on, honey.

In what century do you live? Put it in the head, women do not marry the men they fall in love with. When things get tough, they choose the guy who will be a good father and a reliable husband. Love is just a sweet feeling that must come and go quickly. Later that day, she sat alone on the porch in her favorite rocking chair, watching Northampton`s orange-red sunset. The sky was so close and open that you could almost touch it. His brain had become silent, as if tired of all the noise swirling inside. This month`s credit card payments, Orly`s bad eating habits, Avi`s bad grades, Aunt Esther and her sad cakes, the decaying health of her dog spirit, Jeannette`s wedding plans, her husband`s secret affairs, the lack of love in her life. One by one, they locked them all in small mental boxes. In this lyrical and exuberant story, acclaimed Turkish author Elif Shafak, author of The Island of Missing Trees (a Reese`s Book Club Pick), embodies Rumi`s timeless message of love Although Ella had a degree in English literature and loved fiction, she hadn`t done much in the field after college, other than editing small articles for women`s magazines.

He visited a few book clubs and sometimes wrote book reviews for some local newspapers. That was it. There was a time when she aspired to become a leading book critic, but she simply accepted the fact that life had taken her elsewhere and made her a hard-working housewife with three children and endless domestic obligations. My interest in spirituality began when I was a student. At the time, it was a little strange for me to feel such an attraction. I did not grow up in a spiritual environment. My upbringing was quite the opposite, it was strictly secular. And I was left-wing, anarcho-pacifist, slightly nihilistic and feminist and so on, and so on, and so were most of my friends, and there was no obvious reason for me to be interested in Sufism or anything like that. But I started reading about it. Not just Islamic mysticism, but mysticisms of all kinds, because they are all a reflection of the same universal search for meaning and love. The more I read, the more I unlearned.

Unlearning is, in my experience, an essential part of learning. We must continue to question our truths, our certainties, our dogmas and ourselves. This kind of introspective thinking is healthier for me than constantly criticizing others. “Honey, I`ll be completely honest with you, even if you don`t like it. I know how wonderful it is to be young and in love. Believe me, I do. But marrying someone from a different background is a big gamble. And as parents, we want to make sure you`re doing the right thing. “I love her, Mom.

Does this mean anything to you? Do you remember that word from somewhere? It makes my heart beat faster. I can`t live without him. In this lyrical and effusive sequel to her 2007 novel The Bastard of Istanbul, renowned Turkish author Elif Shafak unfolds two tantalizing parallel narratives – one contemporary and the other set in the thirteenth century when Rumi met his spiritual mentor, the swirling dervish known as Shams de Tabriz – that together embody the poet`s timeless message of love. Ella Rubenstein is forty years old and is unfortunately married when she takes a job as an editor for a literary agent. Your first task is to read and report on Sweet Blasphemy, a novel written by a man named Aziz Zahara. Ella is fascinated by her story about Shams` search for Rumi and the role of the dervish in transforming the prosperous but unhappy cleric into a mystical and passionate poet and defender of love. It is also taken with the lessons or rules of Shams, which offer insight into an ancient philosophy based on the unity of all peoples and religions and the presence of love in each of us. As she continues to read, she realizes that Rumi`s story reflects her own and that Zahara-like deceptions have come to free her. David grabbed the fork he had set aside and inspected it for a while.

“So should I conclude that you didn`t marry the man you loved?” “Enlightening, captivating. A touching song of praise for faith and love” Metro`Colorfully woven and besiredly intelligent` Daily Telegraph` “Past and present fit perfectly in a passionate defense of passion itself” The Times Q. What made you decide to write a novel about rumi`s relationship with his beloved teacher Shams of Tabriz? Has Rumi`s poetry always been important to you? May love always be with you and may you always be surrounded by love. It`s a quest steeped in Sufi mysticism and verse, taking Ella and us to an exotic world where faith and love are explored in heartbreaking ways.