
The Forty Rules of Love
A Novel of Rumi
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Narrated by:
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Laural Merlington
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By:
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Elif Shafak
About this listen
In this follow-up to her acclaimed 2007 novel The Bastard of Istanbul, Turkish author Elif Shafak unfolds two tantalizing parallel narratives---one contemporary and the other set in the 13th century, when Rumi encountered his spiritual mentor, the whirling dervish known as Shams of Tabriz---that together incarnate the poet's timeless message of love.
Ella Rubenstein is 40 years old and unhappily married when she takes a job as a reader for a literary agent. Her first assignment is to read and report on Sweet Blasphemy, a novel written by a man named Aziz Zahara. Ella is mesmerized by his tale of Shams' search for Rumi and the dervish's role in transforming the successful but unhappy cleric into a committed mystic, passionate poet, and advocate of love. She is also taken with Shams's lessons, or rules, which offer insight into an ancient philosophy based on the unity of all people and religions, and the presence of love in each and every one of us. As she reads on, she realizes that Rumi's story mirrors her own and that Zahara---like Shams---has come to set her free.
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Editorial reviews
Laural Merlington’s talent for vocal transformation makes The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi by best-selling Turkish novelist Elif Shafak a spellbinding experience. Merlington deftly and clearly moves between American characters living in Northampton, MA, in 2008 and 13th-century townspeople of Konya, Turkey, giving all depth, emotion, and personality.
The Forty Rules of Love jumps back and forth between the two time periods as Ella, a 40-year-old American housewife and mother of three, begins to wade back into the work force by taking a job reading manuscript submissions for a literary agency. Her first assignment, a story of the relationship between the mysterious 13th-century Sufi, Shams of Tabriz, and the Islamic scholar, Jalal al-Din Rumi (now world renown as the Sufi poet Rumi), becomes the catalyst for changes well beyond Ella’s desire to work outside the home. Ella finds herself drawn to the manuscript’s author, Aziz Zahara, a peripatetic Scottish photographer and Sufi, seeking out the author through email. As the online friendship between Ella and Aziz escalates, the manuscript Aziz has written begins to shake Ella loose from the conventional moorings that she has, for decades, assured herself complete her life.
While Merlington easily gives voice to Ella’s snarky teen-aged children and distant husband, her talents shine as she moves to the book’s characters from 13th-century Turkey. The listening experience borders on magical as Jackal Head, a mercenary assassin, Desert Rose, a young woman forced into prostitution, and Suleiman, the village drunk, share their stories. However, it is the depiction of Shams of Tabriz, a wandering dervish searching the land for his soul’s companion, and Rumi, the scholar blindsided by this itinerant spiritual seeker, that shapes the rich world of The Forty Rules of Love. There is bewilderment in the voice of Jalal al-Din Rumi as he attempts to reconcile his connection to the dervish who has entered the scholar’s well-ordered world. It can be heard in the voice of Shams that he knowingly traverses a deadly path as he expresses his Sufi faith in the ultimate power of love while testing the intransigence and jealousies of Islamist zealots and the scholar’s followers.
The Forty Rules of Love contains not only a book-within-a-book but an introduction to Sufism as well. However, it is the vibrant, talented performance of Laural Merlington that allows the story’s message of love to resonate across centuries. Carole Chouinard
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- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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A moving novel on the power of friendship in our darkest times, from internationally renowned writer and speaker Elif Shafak. In the pulsating moments after she has been murdered and left in a dumpster outside Istanbul, Tequila Leila enters a state of heightened awareness. Her heart has stopped beating, but her brain is still active - for 10 minutes 38 seconds. While the Turkish sun rises and her friends sleep soundly nearby, she remembers her life - and the lives of others, outcasts like her.
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A word of caution before purchasing or listening
- By Esther V. Skandunas on 06-18-22
By: Elif Shafak
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There Are Rivers in the Sky
- A Novel
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Olivia Vinall, Elif Shafak
- Length: 16 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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In the ancient city of Nineveh, on the bank of the River Tigris, King Ashurbanipal of Mesopotamia, erudite but ruthless, built a great library that would crumble with the end of his reign. From its ruins, however, emerged a poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, that would infuse the existence of two rivers and bind together three lives. In 1840 London, Arthur is born beside the stinking, sewage-filled River Thames. With an abusive, alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother, Arthur’s only chance of escaping destitution is his brilliant memory.
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I am 81 years old. Profoundly moved from this book. Plan to get my first tattoo.
- By mary e hennessy on 10-21-24
By: Elif Shafak
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The Island of Missing Trees
- A Novel
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Daphne Kouma, Amira Ghazalla
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home. In the taverna, hidden beneath garlands of garlic, chili peppers and creeping honeysuckle, Kostas and Defne grow in their forbidden love for each other. A fig tree stretches through a cavity in the roof, and this tree bears witness to their hushed, happy meetings and eventually, to their silent, surreptitious departures. The tree is there when war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble, and when the teenagers vanish.
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WOW! What a great story and narration!
- By Marcy on 12-02-21
By: Elif Shafak
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The Book of Rumi
- By: Rumi, Maryam Mafi - translator, Narguess Farzad - foreword
- Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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This fresh prose translation of 105 short teaching stories by Rumi, which form the core of the six-volume Masnavi, explores the hidden spiritual aspects of everyday experience. Rumi transforms the seemingly mundane events of daily life into profound Sufi teaching moments. These prose gems open the mystical portal to the world of the ancient mystic.
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Loved it
- By Aesha T. on 02-05-19
By: Rumi, and others
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Success Habits
- Proven Principles for Greater Wealth, Health, and Happiness
- By: Napoleon Hill
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Napoleon Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich, has been immortalized for his contributions to the self-help genre. In this never-before-published work, Hill shares his principles of success and key habits that provide the basis for life-changing success. Success Habits explains the fundamental rules that lead to a prosperous life. Hill’s principles offer a new way of thinking about intention, self-discipline, and the way we lead our lives. Originally a series of radio talks delivered in Paris, Missouri, Success Habits is filled with anecdotes and stories....
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Wow!
- By tony gagliardotto on 01-27-19
By: Napoleon Hill
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Beauty Is a Wound
- By: Eka Kurniawan
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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The epic novel Beauty Is a Wound combines history, satire, family tragedy, legend, humor, and romance in a sweeping polyphony. The beautiful Indo prostitute Dewi Ayu and her four daughters are beset by incest, murder, bestiality, rape, insanity, monstrosity, and the often vengeful undead. Kurniawan's gleefully grotesque hyperbole functions as a scathing critique of his young nation's troubled past: the rapacious offhand greed of colonialism....
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Like One Hundred Years of Solitude & Animal Farm
- By W Perry Hall on 01-17-16
By: Eka Kurniawan
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The Beauty of Your Face
- A Novel
- By: Sahar Mustafah
- Narrated by: Lameece Issaq, Michael Braun
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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A uniquely American story told in powerful, evocative prose, The Beauty of Your Face navigates a country growing ever more divided. Afaf Rahman, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, is the principal of Nurrideen School for Girls, a Muslim school in the Chicago suburbs. One morning, a shooter - radicalized by the online alt-right - attacks the school.
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wonderful read!
- By Tana Beverwyk-Abouda on 08-04-22
By: Sahar Mustafah
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The Wisdom of Morrie
- Living and Aging Creatively and Joyfully
- By: Morrie Schwartz, Rob Schwartz - editor
- Narrated by: Rob Schwartz, Steven Weber
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Morrie Schwartz, the beloved subject of the classic, multimillion-copy number one bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie, explores these questions and many more in this profound, poetic, and poignant masterpiece of living and aging joyfully and creatively. Later life can be filled with many challenges, but it can also be one of the most beautiful and rewarding passages in anyone’s lifetime. Morrie draws on his experiences as a social psychologist, teacher, father, friend, and sage to offer us a road map to navigate our futures.
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Genuine Advice for all us as we age
- By Richard on 05-16-24
By: Morrie Schwartz, and others
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Healed
- How Cancer Gave Me a New Life
- By: Manisha Koirala, Neelam Kumar
- Narrated by: Aishwarya Singh
- Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Healed is the powerful, moving and deeply personal story of actor Manisha Koirala's battle against ovarian cancer. From her treatment in the US and the wonderful care provided by the oncologists there to how she rebuilt her life once she returned home, the book takes us on an emotional roller-coaster ride through her many fears and struggles and shows how she eventually came out triumphant. Today, as she completes six years of being cancer-free, she shares her story - one marked by apprehensions, disappointments and uncertainties - and the lessons she learnt along the way.
By: Manisha Koirala, and others
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Jameela Green Ruins Everything
- By: Zarqa Nawaz
- Narrated by: Aizzah Fatima
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Jameela Green only has one wish. To see her memoir on the New York Times bestseller list. When her dream doesn’t come true, she seeks spiritual guidance at her local mosque. New imam and recent immigrant Ibrahim Sultan is appalled by Jameela’s shallowness, but agrees to assist her on one condition: that she perform a good deed.
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An intelligent and whacky satire
- By materialist on 01-03-23
By: Zarqa Nawaz
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How to Grow Through What You Go Through
- Mental Maintenance for Modern Lives
- By: Jodie Cariss, Chance Marshall
- Narrated by: Jodie Cariss, Chance Marshall
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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In a world which can sometimes be challenging, frightening, overwhelming and complex, it's not surprising that sometimes we don't feel okay. This is what makes us human, but so often we are tempted to push those difficult feelings away or distract ourselves. We reach for our phone, we switch on Netflix, we over-work...but when do we stop and think about how we are really doing? Psychotherapists Jodie Cariss and Chance Marshall, founders of the revolutionary practice Self Space, are passionate about the importance of 'mental maintenance'.
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The ultimate collections of suggestions
- By Jesse Xu on 07-07-22
By: Jodie Cariss, and others
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When Things Don't Go Your Way
- Zen Wisdom for Difficult Times
- By: Haemin Sunim, Charles La Shure - translator
- Narrated by: Lee Osorio
- Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Have you ever felt like life has thrown you a curveball? Are you struggling to overcome unexpected challenges and setbacks? While loss, heartbreak, and loneliness are all part of the human experience, in this warm guide, internationally bestselling author Haemin Sunim shows us that these moments can actually be rare opportunities for self-discovery, serving as stepping stones to greater things in life.
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Amazing book and audio
- By JD on 03-22-24
By: Haemin Sunim, and others
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From Zero to Millionaire
- A Simple, Effective and Stress-Free Way to Invest in the Stock Market
- By: Nicolas Bérubé
- Narrated by: Michael Johnson
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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At a time when a record number of people are investing in the stock market, this book by award-winning financial writer Nicolas Bérubé reveals how any investor can get rich and beat the professionals at their own game by investing less than an hour a year of their time. Admitting that he felt like a ‘zero’ after his first mistakes as a beginner investor, Nicolas has never stopped trying to understand what separates the winners from the losers.
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Uninspiring Investment Book
- By Hammy on 10-31-23
By: Nicolas Bérubé
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Nights of Plague
- A Novel
- By: Orhan Pamuk, Ekin Oklap - translator
- Narrated by: Amira Ghazalla
- Length: 29 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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It is April 1900, in the Levant, on the imaginary island of Mingheria—the twenty-ninth state of the Ottoman Empire—located in the eastern Mediterranean between Crete and Cyprus. Half the population is Muslim, the other half are Orthodox Greeks, and tension is high between the two. When a plague arrives—brought either by Muslim pilgrims returning from the Mecca or by merchant vessels coming from Alexandria—the island revolts.
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TOO Long!!!
- By Rachel Bahadir on 07-31-23
By: Orhan Pamuk, and others
What listeners say about The Forty Rules of Love
Highly rated for:
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- Sireesha Gullapalli
- 03-13-22
a philosophical masterpiece
This book is a lot of things to me. A spiritual guide, reminder to keep it simple, an acknowledgement that pain exists and can be useful too. There are manu things that resonated with my deep unnamed feelings , and also few things which I have never felt. I admire Author's writing style, it is simple yet effective. Each chapter is in first person and it felt like each character is talking to me and putting their heart out. Story switches around two perioda in time, and explains the beauty of a Mentor - Mentee relationship; be it Rumi and Shams or Aziz and Ella.Though it is a fiction, it did feel personal. With a touch of spirituality, pain and love, I find this book an interesting read.
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- Karen Johnston
- 08-29-16
enjoyed, but slow to get into it
I chose it because it takes place in part where I used to live, and because of Time as central. it was super predictable but still enjoyable. some good reflections on wisdom. very accessible way to read about Sufism, but pretty romanticized version
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- Bella
- 09-06-18
Pronounced words
A fantastic story with meticulous detail!
However some words needed to be pronounced better !
A market place in Persian, Arabic or Turkish language is pronounced bazaar and not bezaar! For example
Overall highly recommended it ❤️
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- berna
- 01-01-17
book that takes you in and makes you live it
What made the experience of listening to The Forty Rules of Love the most enjoyable?
the plot is just alluring ,captivating and magical
Any additional comments?
i literally left my life and immersed my self in this book and was done in 3 days i almost didn't wanna go to work ,eat or do anything but read this book
great book , wonderfully written , captivating , just amazing i was sad to see it finished although i could not wait to read it all !
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- CCtheOneandOnly
- 03-06-19
Beautiful!
This is now one of my most favorite books. I absolutely loved it! Must read!
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- shazia
- 07-20-15
Refreshing lens into Muslim way of life
I enjoyed the novel within a novel concept. I preferred the "Sweet Blasphemy" story more than the surrounding story of Ella the unhappy suburbanite. Ella's character was either no very likable or not developed as well it could have been. On the whole, this was an entertaining way to learn history, which I always love. I knew of the mystic poet Rumi coming into the read, but I didn't know of Shams of Tabriz whom I really liked and subsequently looked up to learn more.
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- iman gorji
- 05-25-19
Simply Magnificent
The story takes you between different timelines and meanwhile allows you to visualize each character from their own perspective. The beautiful story of Shams and Maulana becomes even more enchanting. My hats off to the writer for creating such an amazing and captive treasure. Thank you Elif Shafak. I salute you. Many blessing to you dear.
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- 22Wonderful
- 10-15-13
So well done.
Where does The Forty Rules of Love rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Top Ten
What did you like best about this story?
The story is straightforward and not tricky - and it's beautifully told. The poetry of Rumi and the relationship with Shams of Tabriz reflect well in the past as well as the present time. There is a gentleness in the story that I liked. The mundane-ness of a woman planning meals for her family -- I do this to escape life's realities. Maybe it's just the timing of this particular choice, but the story resonated on many levels. Can't wait to listen to more by this author.
What does Laural Merlington bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Oh, the deliciousness of her deliberate pronunciation of each syllable gives the words weight and value. Loved it.
Any additional comments?
I'm well read and a tough critic -- I absolutely loved this story and it's delivery. Definitely worthwhile. So much so, I need to listen again - and I just finished it last week. Every aspect of the story and delivery were solid. Good work.
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12 people found this helpful
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- Placeholder
- 07-09-17
enchanted..educated.and droolingly good listen
let it play out and take time to Savor the storytellers honesty...after it finished I played the jig saw puzzle template it left in my mind accompanied by Sufi net music.i am 75 years old but I feel like I needed my years of experience to really resonate with this work of art.
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9 people found this helpful
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- melba
- 11-23-18
It all comes together beautifully
When I started listening to this book It was very confusing, too many characters to pay attention to, who was whom, I got lost, as i continued to listen to this story it all came together beautifully and clear. I love 2 stories in this book, I also learned a lot about Sufism, I highly recommended
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