10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World
Books | Fiction / General
4.3
(185)
Elif Shafak
Shortlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize Named a Best Book of the Year by Bookpage, NPR, Washington Post, and The EconomistA 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.
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More Details:
Author
Elif Shafak
Pages
320
Publisher
Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Published Date
2019-09-24
ISBN
163557448X 9781635574487
Community ReviewsSee all
"This is a beautiful, haunting, endearing and thought provoking story that encompasses all of the nuance and complications of the ever changing yet “always the same” Istanbul. This is a story of found family and how our bonds keep us alive well after death, as well as a raw account of the everyday lives of society’s “outcasts”. Beautiful prose and very touching. Absolutely worth a read. "
Emily
"Ce livre parle de sujets politiques importants et toujours problématiques aujourd’hui (racisme, terrorisme, prostitution…). La deuxième partie du livre est remplie d’action, mais la fin est un peu floue."
Élodie Chayer
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Michael Messay
"This book was powerful and well written. Horrifying in terms of what the main character went through in her life. I did not enjoy the last part of the book with the melodrama with the friends… I found this boring and it took away from the powerful message of the book. "
M
Meredith