• The Forty Rules of Love

  • A Novel of Rumi
  • By: Elif Shafak
  • Narrated by: Laural Merlington
  • Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (1,225 ratings)

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The Forty Rules of Love

By: Elif Shafak
Narrated by: Laural Merlington
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Editorial reviews

Laural Merlington’s talent for vocal transformation makes The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi by best-selling Turkish novelist Elif Shafak a spellbinding experience. Merlington deftly and clearly moves between American characters living in Northampton, MA, in 2008 and 13th-century townspeople of Konya, Turkey, giving all depth, emotion, and personality.

The Forty Rules of Love jumps back and forth between the two time periods as Ella, a 40-year-old American housewife and mother of three, begins to wade back into the work force by taking a job reading manuscript submissions for a literary agency. Her first assignment, a story of the relationship between the mysterious 13th-century Sufi, Shams of Tabriz, and the Islamic scholar, Jalal al-Din Rumi (now world renown as the Sufi poet Rumi), becomes the catalyst for changes well beyond Ella’s desire to work outside the home. Ella finds herself drawn to the manuscript’s author, Aziz Zahara, a peripatetic Scottish photographer and Sufi, seeking out the author through email. As the online friendship between Ella and Aziz escalates, the manuscript Aziz has written begins to shake Ella loose from the conventional moorings that she has, for decades, assured herself complete her life.

While Merlington easily gives voice to Ella’s snarky teen-aged children and distant husband, her talents shine as she moves to the book’s characters from 13th-century Turkey. The listening experience borders on magical as Jackal Head, a mercenary assassin, Desert Rose, a young woman forced into prostitution, and Suleiman, the village drunk, share their stories. However, it is the depiction of Shams of Tabriz, a wandering dervish searching the land for his soul’s companion, and Rumi, the scholar blindsided by this itinerant spiritual seeker, that shapes the rich world of The Forty Rules of Love. There is bewilderment in the voice of Jalal al-Din Rumi as he attempts to reconcile his connection to the dervish who has entered the scholar’s well-ordered world. It can be heard in the voice of Shams that he knowingly traverses a deadly path as he expresses his Sufi faith in the ultimate power of love while testing the intransigence and jealousies of Islamist zealots and the scholar’s followers.

The Forty Rules of Love contains not only a book-within-a-book but an introduction to Sufism as well. However, it is the vibrant, talented performance of Laural Merlington that allows the story’s message of love to resonate across centuries. Carole Chouinard

Publisher's summary

In this follow-up to her acclaimed 2007 novel The Bastard of Istanbul, Turkish author Elif Shafak unfolds two tantalizing parallel narratives---one contemporary and the other set in the 13th century, when Rumi encountered his spiritual mentor, the whirling dervish known as Shams of Tabriz---that together incarnate the poet's timeless message of love.

Ella Rubenstein is 40 years old and unhappily married when she takes a job as a reader for a literary agent. Her first assignment is to read and report on Sweet Blasphemy, a novel written by a man named Aziz Zahara. Ella is mesmerized by his tale of Shams' search for Rumi and the dervish's role in transforming the successful but unhappy cleric into a committed mystic, passionate poet, and advocate of love. She is also taken with Shams's lessons, or rules, which offer insight into an ancient philosophy based on the unity of all people and religions, and the presence of love in each and every one of us. As she reads on, she realizes that Rumi's story mirrors her own and that Zahara---like Shams---has come to set her free.

©2010 Elif Shafek (P)2010 Tantor

What listeners say about The Forty Rules of Love

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intricately written. profound story<br />

It was a great story line. Enjoyed it.
Good narration that was steady throughout.
great book on Rumi

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great insightful story, but bad translations.

It's a great insightful and knowledgeable story that's easy to understand, but the narrator doesn't say some words correctly that aren't in English.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Salutation to the novelist & narrator

Narrator played all the characters perfectly well, she is definitely one of the best. The Novelist has woven the story to a marvelous piece which stuns your imagination and inspires you to be a true lover like Rumi and Shams.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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amazing novel

one of the greatest novel I ever read in my life. I enjoyed reading every single word and sentence.

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The best book ever!

This book is one of the best book I’ve ever encountered
I cried few times through it
Amazing knowledge that would never die

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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I fell in love with Shams of Tabriz

What a wonderful story ... or should I say ... weave of two stories. I was drawn in by all facets of this novel ... the unfolding of love, the history, the culture, the peek into Islam, the attention on the similarities between the World's major religions, and between Sufi and Buddhist philosophy, the notion that the Koran can be read with different levels of understanding ... which I have always said of the Bible ... a superficial reader will take it its literal word ... but one must dig deeper to truly understand the intent of what is written ... like any great literary work. The same goes for this novel ... an enjoyable story ...and ... a story laden with messages.

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Great book

Recommend it greatly. I was so into this book when I read it, time flew

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    4 out of 5 stars

Not the best Arabic words pronunciation

I wish the narrator taught herself how to say the Arabic words. They are not pleasant to hear when she pronounces them incorrectly. The job of the narrator who does this for a living is to learn to say the words correctly in their original language!

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Incredible!!! I can't put the book down

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I purchased the novel at 6 pm today. Now it's 12 am and I don't want to go to bed...Could only put my iPhone down (listening on audible app) to charge the dead battery... Showered and blow dried my hair w earphones on!! Lol. One of the best fiction books I ever read! Thanks.

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14 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

I didn't expect to like but I did !!

This was a very entertaining story about the wondering dervish " Shams of Tabriz " and his friendship with Rumi the famous poet .. as an arabic native speaker I didn't have any problems with the Arabic terms scattered through out the story but I do recommend the Arabic version for any Arabic speaker who wishes to enjoy this book to the fullest .. I enjoyed the characters overall .. the narrator did an okay job capturing the characters but she needed some improvements .. but overall it was an unexpected enjoyable read .. I will check out other books by this author for sure :)

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