The Forty Rules Of Love review will obviously get 5 stars from me. It is a best seller book by the famous Turkish writer, Elif Shafak. She is an award-winning novelist, feminist and most widely read female writer.

‘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.’

The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak

Narratives of the story

The novel deals with two parallel narratives going side by side as a representative writing style of Elif Shafak. One set in the modern time, most of the life of Jewish American unhappy housewife, named Ella living in Massachusetts and how love changes her life as a whole. The second narrative is the novel “Sweet Blasphemy” by Aziz Zahara that  Ella reads and sees life from a different perspective.

Plot of The Forty Rules Of Love

The second narrative sets centuries back that is about a wandering dervish Shams of Tabriz, a mystic Sufi, who sees visions and go on a journey to find a true companion with whom he could share his lifelong learned knowledge. Further, when he finds his true mate, named Rumi, everyone else is filled with hatred for Shams.

In other words, this part is mainly concerned with the friendship and love between these two, along with their sufferings. The Forty Rules of Love review should get 5 stars because the plot is beautifully woven with various universal lessons to be learned and to make one’s life meaningful for some purpose.

Characters in The Forty Rules Of Love

When talking about the characterization of the contemporary story, it lacks in that we see everything from Ella’s perspectives. While in “Sweet Blasphemy” each character has its own stories like the beggar, zealot, Rumi and his family, who ultimately unwrap the life story of Shams. Moreover, the way Elif Shafak crafted these characters is remarkable and I couldn’t admire that any less in The Forty Rules of Love review.

Critical Analysis – The Forty Rules of Love review

No doubt, this is one of my favorite books and one widely read fiction books in general. Certainly, as the title suggests, it has included in it, the forty rules of love, that makes this book worth reading. I found it very fascinating when it came to the “Sweet Blasphemy” section.

The diction is appropriate according to the genre of the novel, moreover, it includes words from the Turkish language. The author has included real-life characters of Jalaluddin Rumi and Shams, presenting their soulful connection enriched with love only. It changes your vision of Love by differentiating materialistic world and spirituality.

It persuaded me to love the creation of the Great Creator since one motive of our existence and to remove hatred to make this world a better place.

I found this book lacking something in Ella’s part, because I could not enjoy that or maybe the reason was my attachment with the other part of the book. And the way Sufism was presented in the shape of Aziz Zahara, was giving a touch of western modernistic view, in contrary to real Sufism in the history.

Overall, it is a great book and I would love to recommend folks to read it, for change in their static lives. The book ends with this beautiful note:

The universe turns differently when fire loves water.

Ending of the best seller book

The Forty Rules of Love Review Video