BOOK REVIEW: 10 MINUTES AND 38 SECONDS IN THIS STRANGE WORLD

 Author: Elif Shafak
Genre: Historical fiction, Contemporary Fiction

                      

“Grief is a swallow,' he said. 'One day you wake up and you think it's gone, but it's only migrated to some other place, warming its feathers. Sooner or later, it will return and perch in your heart again.”

Leila Afife Kamile,a.k.a Tequila Leila is dead but nothing is happening as she expected, she is not completely dead, her mind keeps bringing back odd memories with each passing minute. Every memory is stimulated by a specific scent, and in this way we get to know about the life of Tequila Leila.

Born in a conservative family of Van, Turkey, Leila constantly questions the norms and is a rebel in her own right. She was a child dreaming big and having hope in her heart until she was sexually assaulted/raped. She flees to Istanbul soon after that and ends up working at a brothel. She makes friends with four people who are more to her than her family. When she dies, her five friends (four + one childhood friend from Van) are the only ones concerned about her, and end up taking drastic steps.

The premise is based on the observations from a research paper published in the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences that found an instance of brain wave activity  for 10 minutes 38 seconds post-death.

Shafak, very smartly uses her characters to talk about events of historical importance from 1960-1980s, for example the Taksim Square massacre in Turkey. The author's description of Turkey and particularly Istanbul is very raw, it would make anybody hop on the first flight to Turkey.

The story in its essence is a LGBTQ story, shedding light on important topics through its myriad characters. 

Although, towards the end the author made the story a lot more melodramatic than needed. 

Read this book to get surprised by how far friendships go, to get shocked by how far family goes to choose between their children and religion, to know how far the society can stretch to accommodate people into their belief system and how sometimes none of it matters.

My Verdict: 4.5/5

Buy the book: https://amzn.to/35fPn5x (India)

 https://amzn.to/2DJityS  (Other countries)

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