A gorgeous, jeweled, luxurious book (The Times)

Shafak will challenge Paulo Coelho's dominance. With its timely, thought-provoking message . . . The Forty Rules of Love deserves to be a global publishing phenomenon (Independent)

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)

*The international bestseller*

"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 Shams of Tabriz, and his forty rules of life and love, her world is turned upside down. She embarks on a journey to meet the mysterious author of this work.

It is a quest infused with Sufi mysticism and verse, taking Ella and us into an exotic world where faith and love are heartbreakingly explored. . .

'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