The Forty Rules of Love

By: Elif Shafak

Narrated by: George Blagden

Brought to you by Penguin.

The international bestseller from the Booker-shortlisted author of The Island of Missing Trees and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World

* One of the BBC's '100 Novels that Shaped the World'*

"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..."
Ella Rubinstein has a husband, three teenage children, and a pleasant home. Everything that should make her confident and fulfilled. Yet there is an emptiness at the heart of Ella's life - an emptiness once filled by love.

So when Ella reads a manuscript about the thirteenth-century Sufi poet Rumi and his mentor Shams of Tabriz, and his forty rules of life and love, she is ready to look at her life anew. Compelled to embrace change, she embarks on a journey to meet the mysterious author. It is a quest infused with Sufi mysticism and verse, taking Ella and us into a faraway world where faith and doubt are heartbreakingly explored. The Forty Rules of Love is a mesmerising tale of discovery, language, truth and, of course, love itself.

'Enlightening, enthralling. An affecting paean to faith and love' Metro

'Colourfully woven and beguilingly intelligent' Daily Telegraph

'The past and present fit together beautifully in a passionate defence of passion itself' The Times

© Elif Shafak 2010 (P) Penguin Audio 2019

Critic reviews

A gorgeous, jeweled, luxurious book

With its timely, thought-provoking message . . . The Forty Rules of Love deserves to be a global publishing phenomenon

Enlightening, enthralling. An affecting paean to faith and love

Colourfully woven and beguilingly intelligent

The past and present fit together beautifully in a passionate defence of passion itself

My first Audible experience

This book was recommended to me by my friend who also suggested signing up for audible.

The Forty Rules of Love is the first book I have read by Elif Shafak. It’s a beautiful story about love, kindness and friendship. I particularly enjoyed Shafak’s descriptions of whatever there was in this book. Moreover, different colours of the voice of the narrator added this extra factor to the entire experience. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone.

An amazing book

Contains everything needed. Loved it wholeheartedly
Will be listening to it again for sure. Amazing

Loved it

A spiritual book with a storyline. Thoroughly enjoyable. narrator does a fab job of it too.

amazingly beautiful and captivating

This was the most amazing and captivating book I ever read.
Not only written in a elegant and intriguing narrative, but also having the main story (that is a gift in itself) counted from the different perspective, made us dive deep in story in the characters skin, making it impossible to stop listening to it from start to end.
It was Genius!

A true eye opener

I was quite perplexed wether to buy this, thinking it might be anther generic love novel. How wrong was I - this book is a true eye opener, it is about love; but a very philosophical approach to it. The story was excellent & one can definitely improve oneself by listening to this novel. Amazing.