THE NEW NOVEL FROM THE BOOKER-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR · Indian subcontinent edition
In a time of great turmoil, Gustave Flaubert created literature's most scandalous heroine, Madame Bovary — and then poisoned her with arsenic. But what if, 175 years later, Emma and the women history passed over could take the quill from his hand and tell a different story?
Elif Shafak reimagines one of literature's great male writers through the eyes of the women, real and fictional, who shaped him: a devoted nursemaid, an Egyptian dancer, and a passionate, jealous lover who refuses to be forgotten. Through their voices she builds both an intimate portrait of an artist and a sweeping meditation on storytelling itself — who gets remembered, who gets erased, and how literature survives political upheaval, war and injustice.
The journey runs from Flaubert's strange childhood in a house that was part home, part hospital, part morgue, to revolutionary Paris, and on to Istanbul, Cairo, Palestine and Beirut. Rich, transporting and illuminating, it is a love letter to literature, to untold stories and neglected communities, and to the stubborn spirit of humanity. Arundhati Roy urges readers to make place for Shafak on their bookshelf; Ian McEwan calls her a unique and powerful voice in world literature.
About the author
Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist whose work has been translated into fifty-seven languages. Her novels include The Forty Rules of Love, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, The Island of Missing Trees and There Are Rivers in the Sky. She was appointed President of the Royal Society of Literature in 2025.
Edition details
- Viking paperback, 400 pages
- For sale in the Indian subcontinent only
- Published 20 October 2026
