Elif shafak

This is the story of one lost poem, two great rivers, and three remarkable lives – all connected by a single drop of water. In the ruins of Nineveh, that ancient city of Mesopotamia, there lies hidden in the sand fragments of a long-forgotten poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh. In Victorian London, an extraordinary child is born at the edge of the dirt-black Thames. Arthur’s only chance of escaping poverty is his brilliant memory. When his gift earns him a spot as an apprentice at a printing press…

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Elif Shafak’s work abounds with references, memories and a deep love of Istanbul. But why does the Booker-shortlisted novelist, gravitate towards the preservation of history and oral tradition repeatedly? For her pertinent questions arose when she searched for the voices of women who had shaped her homeland. What was a particular century like for women? How has the underrepresentation of women in history shaped our understanding of the past? What efforts are being made to recover these…

A conversation with Turkey’s leading female author.

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak set in the 1970's Cyprus and contemporary London of 2010's is a tale narrated partly by a fig tree, partly by humans about the transgeneretional trauma, the burden of the past on the current and future generations when it comes to dealing with wars, pogroms, ethnic cleansing, enforced borders drawn on a piece of paper at one time in history and how it affects the lives of the future generations. Elif Shafak has created a beautiful tale of wonder and…

As she confronts the ecological crisis and the persecution of the Yazidi people in her latest novel, the author talks about the difficulty of being a writer – and a woman – in Turkey