PRAISE FOR THE GAZE
‘Elif Shafak is the best author to come out of Turkey in the last decade’ Orhan Pamuk
‘Shafak’s novel is a carefully crafted work of imagination . . . [It] will confirm Shafak’s reputation as a writer of impressive range, who is not afraid to ask the big questions’ Financial Times
‘Original and compelling’ TLS
‘Shafak blends historical fiction, urban politics and youthful curiosity in an elaborate map of Turkey whose key is the book itself’ Guardian
‘Plays with ideas of beauty and ugliness like they’re Rubik’s cubes’ Helen Oyeyemi
‘Entertaining and affecting’ Publishers’ Weekly
‘Shafak paints a gorgeous picture of a city teeming with secrets, intrigue and romance. Lush’ The Times
‘Vividly evoked, beautifully written . . this edifying novel shows how hate and envy destroy, and how love might build the work anew’ Observer
‘A gorgeous novel: worldly, intriguing, raucous yet elegant, teeming with love and cruelty – and brilliantly alive’ A. D. Miller
By the same author
The
Flea Palace
The Saint of Incipient Insanities
The Bastard of Istanbul
The Forty Rules of Love
The Happiness of Blond People Honour Black Milk
The Architect’s Apprentice
Three Daughters of Eve
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World
How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division
The Island of Missing Trees
There Are Rivers in the Sky
about the author
Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist, whose work has been translated into fifty-eight languages. The author of twenty books, thirteen of which are novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak’s novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize. The Island of Missing Trees was a Sunday Times bestseller, and was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and the Women’s Prize for Fiction. There are Rivers in the Sky, which won an Edward Stanford Award for Fiction, is her latest novel.
Shafak holds a PhD in political science, and is a Fellow and a Vice President of the Royal Society of Literature. She has been awarded the medal of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and, in 2024, was awarded the British Academy President’s Medal for ‘her excellent body of work which demonstrates an incredible intercultural range’.
