The 40 rules of love

By Elif Shafak

Released : 29/08/2021

Reviewed : 24/07/ 2021

Reviewed by : Samio Rajkumari

The story started out with our Ella Rubinstein . She has a husband ,three children and a lovely house. Ella has almost everything yet she felt this emptiness.

She has been a house wife though she had graduated with a degree in English . She was content with being a home maker until few years as her children were growing up , and they no longer needed her . She decided to search for a job . Two weeks before her 40^th birthday she got a job at a literary agent as a part time reader .

As a part of her job she got a manuscript title “ Sweet Blasphemy ” by A.Z.Zahara .

Ella has always been the kind of cautious woman who can’t just agree to the idea of love . It has always been a mystery to her that people believe love to be the essence of life .

The sweet blasphemy was about poet Rumi and Shams of Tabriz and his forty rule of love and life . The first page of the manuscript hits her off as it described love to be the essence of life and it hit everyone – even those who shuns love .

Ella was reluctant to read the manuscript but as she read few chapters , she got curious about the author and ended up e-mailing him . Little did she know her life was about to be changed forever.

Sweet blasphemy introduced us about how Rumi was turned to a poet upon meeting with his companion , his love , Shams of Tabriz . The 40 rule of love is narrated to Rumi by Shams .

 

What I love about the book: 

I love the narrative of the book and how it’s a book within a book . The most interesting part is \” how an event is described through everyone’s perspective \” .

It has introduced me to the world of Sufism.