Where to start reading Elif Shafak’s books
Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish author, whose work spans novels, essays and non-fiction, tackling everything from Turkish history to Sufi poets to honour killings. Her books have been translated into nearly 60 languages, and recognised through numerous prestigious awards.
Shafak was awarded the British Academy President’s Medal for storytelling that "bravely tackles sensitive topics such as conflict, gender equality, human rights, ecology and the environmental crisis, with scholarly rigour and intellectual force." She was also appointed President of the Royal Society of Literature in 2025 and has taught at various universities in Turkey, the US and the UK, including St Anne's College, Oxford University, where she is an honorary fellow.
With such an expansive, critically acclaimed body of work, it can be difficult to know where to begin with Shafak's writing. Read on for our essential guide.
Three places to start
The short answer
Start with There are Rivers in the Sky if you love sweeping epics
Start with The Island of Missing Trees if you love stories of forbidden love and divided worlds
Start with The Forty Rules of Love if you want feel-good fiction
Elif Shafak books in order
- The Saint of Incipient Insanities (2004)
- The Gaze (2006)
- The Flea Palace (2007)
- The Bastard of Istanbul (2007)
- The Forty Rules of Love (2010)
- Honour (2012)
- The Architect’s Apprentice (2014)
- Three Daughters of Eve (2016)
- How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division (2020)
- The Island of Missing Trees (2021)
- There are Rivers in the Sky (2024)
Frequently asked questions
Who is Elif Shafak?
Elif Shakfak is a multi-award-winning, critically acclaimed British-Turkish author. She writes literary and historical novels, and non-fiction essays, and has published over 20 books that have been translated into almost 60 languages.
What is Elif Shafak’s most famous book?
The Forty Rules of Love was selected as one of the BBC's '100 Novels that Shaped the World' in the ‘Love, Sex and Romance’ category, alongside other well-known authors such as Jeanette Winterson, Zora Neale Hurston and Jane Austen.
What is Elif Shafak’s best-selling book?
The Island of Missing Trees was a Sunday Times bestseller and shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022. It was chosen as Reese’s Book Club Pick by Reese Witherspoon in 2021.
What is the one Elif Shafak book everyone should read?
For a must-read Elif Shafak book, consider picking up 10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in this Strange World, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2019. It follows the main character Leila, a sex worker in Istanbul, in the moments after her death.
What awards has Elif Shafak won?
Shafak’s writing has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the RSL Ondaatje Prize, the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, and Prix Femina Etranger, among others.
Shafak received the Halldór Laxness International Literature Prize for her contribution to 'the renewal of the art of storytelling' in 2020. She was also nominated for ‘Author of the Year’ at the British Book Awards in 2026 and awarded the British Academy President’s Medal in 2024.