Later this year, Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre will be hosting bestselling author Elif Shark (Şafak in Turkish), who will be discussing her new novel ‘There are Rivers in the Sky’, which is due out in August.
The book is a rich, sweeping novel set between the 19th century and modern times, about love and loss, memory and erasure, hurt and healing, centred around three enchanting characters living on the banks of the River Thames and the River Tigris – their lives all curiously touched by the epic of Gilgamesh.
Born in Strasbourg to a social psychologist father, Nuri Bilgin, and diplomat mother, Şafak Atayman, the award-winning British Turkish author spent much of childhood and teen years in Ankara, Spain, Jordan and Germany, where her mother was posted.
Her first book, Pinhan, about a hermaphrodite mystic in Ottoman Empire, was published in 1997, when Shafak was 25-years-old. The book went on to win the Rumi Prize, a Turkish literary award, the following year.
Since then, Shafak has published a total of 19 books, 12 of which are novels, including her latest The Island of Missing Trees, which was shortlisted for the Costa Award, British Book Awards, RSL Ondaatje Prize and Women’s Prize for Fiction.
She is a bestselling author in many countries around the world and her work has been translated into 57 languages.
Another of her books, ‘10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World’, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and RSL Ondaatje Prize; and was Blackwell’s Book of the Year, while ‘The Forty Rules of Love’ was chosen by the BBC for its 100 Novels that Shaped Our World list.
Shafak has a PhD in political science, and regularly writtes essays for several media outlets. She is an advocate for women’s rights, minority rights, and freedom of speech.
Event
Title: Elif Shafak – There are Rivers in the Sky
Date: Wednesday 02 October 2024
Time: 7pm to 8pm
Venue: The Sheldonian Theatre, Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3AZ
Admission: £8 per person.
Tickets: are on sale via Eventbrite – click here
Main image, top, of Elif Shafak, 2013. Photo © Zeynel Abidin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
