This is the third literary fiction novel by Elif Shafak that I’ve read, and once again, I was completely drawn in. I seem to fall in love with her storytelling every single time. She has a special talent for bringing places to life. The setting never feels like a background decoration. It shapes the characters. It holds their memories. And somehow, the personalities and histories of her characters feel inseparable from the places they inhabit.

In 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, the story begins at the exact moment Leila’s heart stops beating. From there, each chapter unfolds like an archive being pulled from her fading memory. Every minute after her death unlocks a vivid recollection: scents, tastes, moments, people. Through these fragments, we piece together who Leila was. We also hear from her friends, whose perspectives add depth and tenderness to the story.

The novel moves in two distinct parts. The first half explores the defining moments of Leila’s life. We see her childhood, her struggles, and the path that leads her to Istanbul. We witness how she meets her five closest friends, each of them carrying their own scars and hopes. These chapters build the emotional foundation of the book. They help us understand how Leila’s life unfolded the way it did.

The second half shifts its focus. After her body is found, her friends step forward. They refuse to let her story end in anonymity. This part of the novel carries a deep sense of urgency and devotion. While it reveals the harsh reality of Leila’s fate, it also highlights the strength of chosen family. Even after her brain ceases to function and her soul departs, the love surrounding her continues through the people who care about her.

Both halves of the book held my attention in different ways. The first part allowed me to know Leila. The second made me feel the weight of losing her. Together, they form a memorable story that lingers in my mind, much like Elif Shafak’s other novels have done for me.

My Favorite Bits

• “Kader ’, people called it – ‘destiny’ – and said no more, because people always gave simple names to the complex things that frightened them.”

• “Just because you think it’s safe here, it doesn’t mean this is the right place for you, her heart countered. Sometimes where you feel most safe is where you least belong.”

• Just as the sour could hide beneath the sweet, or vice versa, within every sane mind there was a trace of insanity, and within the depths of madness glimmered a seed of lucidity.

• People who overused the word ‘natural’ did not know much about the ways of Mother Nature. If you told them how snails, worms and black sea bass were hermaphrodites, or male seahorses could give birth, or male clownfish turned female halfway through their lives, or male cuttlefish were transvestites, they would be surprised. Anyone who studied nature closely would think twice before using the world ‘natural’.

• Nothing is permanent here . Nothing felt settled. It all must have begun thousands of years ago when the ice sheets melted, the sea levels rose, the floodwaters surged, and all known ways of life were destroyed. When all is destroyed, pessimists are the first to flee the area, probably; the optimists would choose to wait and see how things would turn out. One of the endless tragedies of human history is that pessimists are better at surviving than optimists, which meant that, logically speaking, humanity carries the genes of people who did not believe in humanity.

• Little did she yet understand that the end of childhood comes not when a child’s body changes with puberty, but when her mind is finally able to see her life through the eyes of an outsider.

• She was a foreigner and, like all foreigners, she carried with her the shadow of an elsewhere.

• Getting through life as unscathed as possible depended to a large extent on two fundamental principles: knowing the right time to arrive and knowing the right time to leave.

---

Author: Elif Shafak
Publication date: 6 June 2019
Number of pages: 312 pages

---