Elif Shafak on Flaubert, Exile and Creativity in Crisis
Elif Shafak's latest work, *In One Brief Moment All Eternity*, offers a fresh perspective on Gustave Flaubert's life through the narratives of various female figures, such as his nursemaid Julie, mother, mistress Louise Colet, confidante George Sand, Egyptian courtesan Kuchuck Hanem, a camel named Jamilah, and Emma Bovary. Residing in west London for 18 years with her husband Eyüp Can and their two children, Shafak views the book as a tribute to literature, inspired by her own struggles with depression. Born in Strasbourg in 1971 to Turkish parents, she faced legal challenges in Turkey over her 2006 novel *The Bastard of Istanbul*. Shafak has not visited Turkey in over a decade and was appointed president of the Royal Society of Literature in December, having authored 14 novels.
Key facts
- In One Brief Moment All Eternity is a fictionalised life of Gustave Flaubert told through multiple female narrators
- Shafak was born in Strasbourg in 1971 and has lived in west London for 18 years
- Her novel The Bastard of Istanbul was tried in Turkey in 2006; she was acquitted
- Turkish authorities investigated three of her books for obscenity in 2019
- She was elected president of the Royal Society of Literature in December
- The Island of Missing Trees was shortlisted for the Women's Prize in 2022
- 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2019
- She has not visited Turkey in 11 years and describes herself as possibly in self-imposed exile
- Her 2017 TED talk on diverse thought has been viewed more than 6.4 million times
- She has published 14 novels
Entities
Artists
- Elif Shafak
- Gustave Flaubert
- Orhan Pamuk
- Marcel Proust
- James Joyce
- Vladimir Nabokov
- Louise Colet
- George Sand
- Kuchuck Hanem
- Eyüp Can
- Emma Bovary
Institutions
- The Guardian
- Royal Society of Literature
- Radikal
- System of a Down
- Women's Prize
- Booker Prize
- TED
Locations
- Strasbourg
- France
- Turkey
- Ankara
- Madrid
- Spain
- Jordan
- Germany
- London
- United Kingdom
- Istanbul
- Nineveh
- River Tigris
- Cyprus
- United States