Jennie Jacques Instagram – 💥2nd book 📖 I’ve read by #elifshafak – Turkish/British novelist – once again, superbly executed ✍️ I recommend her as an author! From 13th century bullies, religious teachers, drunks prostitutes & poets to 21st century housewives & a modern day teen battling bulimia, it’s a colourful & diverse patchwork 🎆 🎇 Each chapter is narrated by one of the aforementioned characters providing a broad insight! The 21st century storyline is weaved in with the story of a 13th century “historic manuscript.” I’ve not really read anything like this before. The contemporary narrative is centred around “unhappy” housewife Ella Rubenstein (40’s) who lives with her (cheating) husband & middle-class kids. Ella works for literary agency, part-time, which is how she comes across a piece of writing ✍️ called “Sweet Blasphemy” by Aziz Z. A rather unexpected love story unfolds. His work is reflective of the friendship in 13th Century Konya, Turkey, between Rumi & Shams – true story. I learnt a lot about how love, peace ✌️ & spirituality are encoded in Islam ☪️ Spirituality, God, the power of Love & transformation… what’s not to like? Well, there’s also the concept of religion causing violence, division & murder. As more of an intellectual than a hopeless romantic 💘 I tend to use my brain 🧠 over my heart ❤️ to make most of my life decisions 😂 so the mother, Ella, walking out on her family, the way she did, certainly didn’t sit right with me – at all 👀 💩 But, equally there were some profound & beautiful moments ruled by the heart 💜 & beautifully written paragraphs which truly made me feel #compassion #empathy The momentum towards the end was particularly impressive. I continually cared about what happened next 💫