Elif Shafak

'In the first minute following her death, Tequila Leila's consciousness began to ebb, slowly and steadily, like a tide receding from the shore. Her brain cells, having run out of blood, were now completely deprived of oxygen. But they did not shut down. Not right away . . . ' Our brains stay active for ten minutes after our heart stops beating. For Tequila Leila, each minute brings with it a new memory- growing up with her father and his two wives in a grand old house in a quiet Turkish town; watching the women gossip and wax their legs while the men went to mosque; sneaking cigarettes and Western magazines on her way home from school; running away to Istanbul to escape an unwelcome marriage; falling in love with a student who seeks shelter from a riot in the brothel where she works. Most importantly, each memory reminds Leila of the five friends she met along the way - the friends who are now desperately trying to find her.

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World

Manuela Miksa

She was a foreigner and, like all foreigners, she carried with her the shadow of an elsewhere.

What she failed to see earlier she saw now: the doors were padlocked, the windows sealed, and Istanbul was not a city of opportunities, but a city of scars. 

Shortlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize Named a Best Book of the Year by Bookpage, NPR, Washington Post, and The Economist A moving novel on the power of friendship in our darkest times, from internationally renowned writer and speaker Elif Shafak. In the pulsating moments after she has been murdered and left in a dumpster outside Istanbul, Tequila Leila enters a state of heightened awareness. Her heart has stopped beating but her brain is still active-for 10 minutes 38 seconds. While the Turkish sun rises and her friends sleep soundly nearby, she remembers her life-and the lives of others, outcasts like her. Tequila Leila's memories bring us back to her childhood in the provinces, a highly oppressive milieu with religion and traditions, shaped by a polygamous family with two mothers and an increasingly authoritarian father. Escaping to Istanbul, Leila makes her way into the sordid industry of sex trafficking, finding a home in the city's historic Street of Brothels. This is a dark, violent world, but Leila is tough and open to beauty, light, and the essential bonds of friendship. In Tequila Leila's death, the secrets and wonders of modern Istanbul come to life, painted vividly by the captivating tales of how Leila came to know and be loved by her friends. As her epic journey to the afterlife comes to an end, it is her chosen family who brings her story to a buoyant and breathtaking conclusion.

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World

Jels

'My mother - I used to call her Auntie - she often felt the same way, maybe worse. People always told her to fight depression. But I have a feeling that as soon as we see something as our enemy we make it stronger. Like a boomerang. You hurl it away, it comes back and hits you with equal force. Maybe what you need is to befriend your depression.'

'What a funny thing to say, honey. How am I to do that?'

'Well, think about it: a friend is someone you can walk with in the dark and learn lots of things from. But you also know you are different people - you and your friend. You are not your depression. You are much more than what your mood is today or tomorrow.'

Mateja

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019 'Expect vibrant, vivid and eye-opening descriptions of Middle Eastern life propelled by a tender storyline, all in Shafak's haunting, beautiful and considered prose' Vanity Fair 'Incredibly sensuous and poetic and evocative' Pandora Sykes, The High Low 'Richly uplifting... truly beautiful writing' Nicola Sturgeon 'In the first minute following her death, Tequila Leila's consciousness began to ebb, slowly and steadily, like a tide receding from the shore...' For Leila, each minute after her death recalls a sensuous memory: spiced goat stew, sacrificed by her father to celebrate the birth of a yearned-for son; bubbling vats of lemon and sugar to wax women's legs while men are at prayer; the cardamom coffee she shares with a handsome student in the brothel where she works. Each fading memory brings back the friends she made in her bittersweet life - friends who are now desperately trying to find her . . . 'Simply magnificent, a truly captivating work of immense power and beauty, on the essence of life and its end' Philippe Sands 'A vivid carnival of life and death, cruelty and kindness, love, politics and deep humanity. Brilliant!' Helena Kennedy 'Elif Shafak brings into the written realm what so many others want to leave outside. Spend more than ten minutes and 38 seconds in this world of the estranged. Shafak makes a new home for us in words' Colum McCann 'Elif Shafak's extraordinary 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in this Strange World is a work of brutal beauty and consummate tenderness' Simon Schama 'A rich, sensual novel... This is a novel that gives voice to the invisible, the untouchable, the abused and the damaged, weaving their painful songs into a thing of beauty.' Financial Times 'One of the best writers in the world today' Hanif Kureishi 'Haunting, moving, beautifully written - and based by an extraordinary cast of characters who capture the diversity of modern Turkey. A masterpiece' Peter Frankopan 'Extraordinary' Guardian 'Life-affirming' Stylist

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019

Elad Schulman

Elif Shafak has good intentions: she sees Turkish society through a queer feminist kaleidoscope and points at social injustices. I enjoyed the vivid descriptions of Istanbul that appeal to all the senses. All in all, the plot is a bit flat and I couldn’t connect fully to the characters. Especially the second part is a bit preachy and almost becomes absurd.

Hanscho

altlovesbooks

"...in the desert of life, the fool travels alone and the wise by caravan."

As I'm reading about the title after the fact, evidently it's based on the scientific idea that a person's brain waves have been found to be active up to 10 minutes and 38 seconds past a person's death. The first part of this book embraces that idea as we get to know "Tequila" Leila, a Turkish brothel worker experiencing her last few minutes through flashbacks of her life. We learn about her family, her early years, and other formative events that led her to Istanbul and the brothel she worked at before her unfortunate end. We also learn about five very close friends she makes along the way, and also learn their backstories that led them to Leila. The second part of the book focuses on these five friends and how they come to terms(?) with the death of their friend.

This book was cruising for a solid four star review in the first part. I fell in love with the imagery presented to us by the author, and was incredibly invested in learning more about Leila and who she was. Her story was a sad one, but I loved how strong she seemed in the face of everything that happened to her. Then we hit the second part, and suddenly the tone of the book shifts abruptly to something more macabre humor as the friends undertake this crazy scheme to honor their dead friend. I appreciate the look at Leila's close friends and how they come to terms with her death, but I felt like the story that this introspection was hung on fell off the rails hard. 

So, in summary, great start, weirdly absurd end that I felt was tonally off from the rest of the book.

heleen de boever

Shrouk Shafie

I loved the various characters in this one. Each of them was unique and different in its own way. I just got bored a bit by the end, maybe it was longer than I expected. Definitely in love with Leila.

Vivek Chand

Another wonderful tale by Elif Shafak, in my favorite city of Istanbul. She always weaves messages about society and culture in her stories which make them more interesting. The story meanders through Galata (where I lived briefly), Pera, Kilyos etc. all familiar places, taking me down a nostalgic trip. Any resident of Istanbul would understand why the city connects with you.

wildemononoke

Giulia

This book is so evocative and elegant, following the interweaving lives of various people to provide commentary on sex workers, found family, survival and personal strength. Beautiful. 

Nooshin

This is officially the worst book of my life. Ending the decade on a real high note here.

Judith Van Laere

Great story, sometimes a bit thrown off by the use of 'foreign' words which were not translated or explained in the story (but were added in a glossary at the end though)

Cariena

Wat een prachtig boek. Ik heb na het lezen het gevoel dat ik alle personages goed ken, alsof ik er bij was. De schrijfster wist heel goed de sfeer van Istanbul te creeëren voor de lezer. Aanrader!

Nadine 

What a magical fantastically well written book about the failure of family and the strength of friendships. 
Must read

Safiya 

And now I'd love to do some cemeteries tourism!

'In the first minute following her death, Tequila Leila's consciousness began to ebb, slowly and steadily, like a tide receding from the shore. Her brain cells, having run out of blood, were now completely deprived of oxygen. But they did not shut down. Not right away...'For Leila, each minute after her death brings a sensuous memory- the taste of spiced goat stew, sacrificed by her father to celebrate the long-awaited birth of a son; the sight of bubbling vats of lemon and sugar which the women use to wax their legs while the men attend mosque; the scent of cardamom coffee that Leila shares with a handsome student in the brothel where she works. Each memory, too, recalls the friends she made at each key moment in her life - friends who are now desperately trying to find her. . .

Laura Dobie

A touching and beautifully written novel that depicts the close friendships between a group of outsiders, which captures the colours and flavours of Istanbul, and political and social change.

Alma 🌻

“Did the dead remember the past, and, if so, which parts of it, and in what order? How could the mind condense an entire life into the time it took to boil a kettle?” 

Shafak writes a compelling story with the concept that brain activity persists in people for a short while after physical death. The book is rich in so many themes; religion, death, politics, female empowerment, revolution. It was a brutally honest depiction of trauma and violence that women face in a patriarchal and religious society. Leila’s world was indeed strange, in a post-War Turkish setting, which practiced conservative customs under a niqab and celebrated liberalism in revealing frocks. 

It begins with Leila’s death and the chapters that follow encompass a countdown of minutes and seconds till Leila’s soul leaves her body. Each minute that passes by is sparked by a smell or flavour; lemon, sugar, cardamom coffee, chocolate, sulphuric acid – all of which indicate a turning point in Leila’s life. Through this, we also learn of the people in her life; her parents, her brother, her madam, her lover, and her most cherished friends.

The structure of the story is ingenious; it’s divided into three parts: starting with the mind, where Leila takes us through her memories, then the body, moving forward from her death to how she is treated as an outcast even in death, and then the soul, which is free at last once Leila’s friends give her a burial neither her family nor the State would provide.

The story dedicates, in short intermissions, a backstory into each of her friends’ lives and how they came to Istanbul and enter Leila’s life. The story celebrates these misfits that Leila loves and holds dear. One raised by a single mother, one of Muslim faith but is marginalized because of her dwarfism, one of Somalian descent born of an interracial marriage, one who escaped an abusive marriage and one whose gender identity is different from that assigned at birth.

Shafak’s writing is impeccable, and she has a knack for weaving stories within stories. Some may argue that some characters were left unevenly developed but I say, not only does the author give a voice to different personalities living different hardships, but how she gives life to Leila in those stories and yet sustains her as the nexus of the story is what makes Shafak a great author. This is easily one of my favourite reads!

A moving novel on the power of friendship in our darkest times, from internationally renowned writer and speaker Elif Shafak.

Moray Lyle McIntosh

The title is the amount of time remaining in the life of Tequila Leila, a sex worker murdered and dumped in Istanbul. It's a hard-hitting beginning to a truly brilliant book. In part one, Leila's waning consciousness recalls her life while part two deals with the aftermath of her death, as her friends try to claim her body. It's a structure that allows Leila to be fully realised, on her own terms as well as those who knew her in all the complexity and contradiction that this throws up. It makes Leila startlingly human and presents death, especially violent death, in a very different narrative structure. There's a little sentimentality, a little two much purple prose and, unfortunately, the motley crew of supporting characters are not given the same depth as Leila. Nevertheless, there are strokes of genius in the writing and it is worth letting this take precedence over the flaws.

Olivera Mitić

Ono kad se knjiga završi, a ostalo još sto strana do kraja.

nuha ✨️

Elif Shafak's storytelling and her ability to come up with such a unique plot is truly mind-blowing. While the story, once you read it, seems familiar, you might have never read a point of view based on a character such as Leila and her friends. At least I never have. Yes, I have heard about countless Leilas' in my life, but I have never looked at life through their eyes. And never even thought of it from their perspective, so it was truly a breath of fresh air. 

I loved Leila's character and most of her friends. I didn't like some of them as humans, but I did enjoy their individuality as a reader. Another thing that I really liked about the book was the author's effort to portray the different views that exist within the Muslim community. 

The thing that threw me off was the ending. In my opinion, everything until half of part two was smooth, and then things just started going up and down. It turned out from what you would expect from a group of grieving friends into this adventure that I could never imagine being part of. But I guess if there was someone as wholesome and wonderful as Leila in my life, someone who was ready to do anything for her friends, then perhaps I would be ready to do anything for them too.

Maytal

Wow, what a stunning, beautifully written book.

Paulina 

Such a beautiflul, bittersweet, melancholic, but also with a little drop of hope (which we find in closeness of our friends, family of our choice) story.

Grace Emilia Machon

Gorgeous prose but still recovering because this is just so sad and true.

Manish Narayan Pandit

Like I'm just back from Istanbul and feel like I've grown up with the protagonist. 
How hard it might have been if you were never allowed to call Mumma to your own mother.
Leila.. I'm stuck there with you and every temperament I see come alive. You left me with lots of quests which I believe only you could answer. As you're no more I find it completely pointless keeping my quests alive. I'm broke.

What if, after the moment of death, the human mind continues to work for a few more precious minutes ? Ten minutes, thirty-eight seconds exactly... For Leila, each minute after her death brings a sensuous memory : the taste of spiced goat stew, the goat sacrificed by her father to celebrate the long-awaited birth of a son ; the sight of bubbling vats of lemon and sugar which the women use to wax their legs while the men attend mosque ; the scent of cardamom coffee that Leila shares with a handsome student in the brothel where she works. Each memory, too, recalls the friends she made at each key moment in her life - friends who are now desperately trying to find her...

Pia Sophia

Another beautiful gem by Elif Shafak. Such an emotional story, I loved it!

Joanna Rosenwink 

I really wasn’t sure what to make of this book for a long time. It deals with some very heavy topics but still manages to be ultimately uplifting.

The importance of the family you find for yourself is at the heart of this book, and although some if the scenes were particularly upsetting (I wasn’t aware that there would be scenes of child sexual abuse which may be something some readers would want to avoid), there were also comedic moments which made me smile.

Reading about such a different culture in the middle of the 20th century was also really interesting.

The writing is beautiful and I would have given the book 5 stars if I hadn’t struggled so much with some of its darker moments.

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World

Reviews

Highlights