The Forty Rules of Love By Elif Shafak (Book Review)

Though I have read this master-piece in more than a hundred sittings, when-ever I start reading in any sitting it always engaged my mind till the next few hours with sadness, curiosity, warmth, and love. It would be really difficult to conclude the actual theme of two parallel stories but the thought-provoking message of Love is constant. Being a curious truth finder, whenever I read any rule of love, I read it as many times as I could to absorb the actual or hidden meaning of it. Try to match each rule with the previous one. Don’t know how many times I cried while reading especially the time Rumi wrote his monolog almost at the end of the story or The way he transformed after the death of shams. Or when Ella wrote the forty rule, “ love is the water of life, and a lover is the soul of fire! The Universe turns differently when fire loves water.”

From Tawakal as the first step of love to total surrender and submission, “ Every true love and friendship is a story of unexpected transformation”. Especially The rule, when shams have said, “ A life without love is of no account….. Love has no label, no definition, It is what it is, pure and simple.” Even while writing, I am crying like I am/have lost something.

Magnificent!