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Elif Shafak Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Elif Shafak
Photo: Ebru Bilun

Elif Shafak

How to pronounce Elif Shafak: El-liff Sha-fahk

Elif Shafak Biography

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish author of a dozen novels, including The Island of Missing Trees, which was short-listed for the Costa Novel Award, and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize. Her work has been translated into fifty-six languages. She holds a PhD in political science and has taught at universities in Turkey, the United States and the United Kingdom. She lives in London and is an honorary fellow at Oxford University.

Elif Shafak's website

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Interview

Michelle Johnson, Managing and Culture Editor for World Literature Today, interviews Elif Shafak about her novel, There Are Rivers in the Sky

When the novel opens, we get a peek into King Ashurbanipal's library. He will someday be remembered as "The Librarian King" and "The Educated Monarch," yet he is brutally cruel. The cruel headmaster in Arthur's school, too, is surrounded by books. Some people believe that reading develops empathy, but that isn't so with either of these men. What is your view of the relationship between reading and empathy?

I do believe that reading, especially reading fiction, develops empathy, connectivity, and understanding. I know this because it happened to me. Books have changed me profoundly. Ever since my childhood, they have shown me the possibility of other worlds, other existences, connecting me with lives beyond my tiny little corner of the universe. However, it is also true that education alone does not automatically make one wiser or kinder. My grandmother, the woman who raised me until I was ten years old, was not a well-educated woman, only because she had been pulled out of school in Turkey at a young age; just for being a girl she had been denied a proper education. Yet she wholeheartedly believed in women's independence. Grandma was one of the wisest people I have ever met throughout my life. She showed me how there are multiple ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Elif Shafak at BookBrowse
There Are Rivers in the Sky jacket The Island of Missing Trees jacket Three Daughters of Eve jacket The Architect's Apprentice jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Elif Shafak but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Tash Aw

    Tash Aw

    Tash Aw was born in Taipei to Malaysian parents. He grew up in Kuala Lumpur before moving to Britain to attend university. He is the author of three critically acclaimed novels – The Harmony Silk Factory (2005), which ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Bastard of Istanbul

    Try:
    Map of the Invisible World
    by Tash Aw

  • Chris Bohjalian

    Chris Bohjalian

    Chris Bohjalian is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-three books, including Hour of the Witch, The Red Lotus, Midwives, and The Flight Attendant, was the basis for the hit HBO Max television series starring ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Bastard of Istanbul

    Try:
    The Sandcastle Girls
    by Chris Bohjalian

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