Book 12 topples – a story of the body, mind and soul

In Elif Shafak’s book 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World the main character, Leila, is dead. She has been murdered and her body has been left in a dustbin. For ten minutes and a few seconds after her death, the author tells us, she is still able to remember and think and so she reviews the events that make up her life, her abusive childhood, her occupation as a sex worker, her friends and the man she loves. The author also tells us about the lives of her friends who are referred to as “The Five”. The book is set in Turkey in the 1960s and 70s and the author evokes the culture and social expectations of the time and then tells us about these individuals who don’t easily fit into the society of the time. All of them are poor and marginalised for one reason or another but they form a community of friends which replaces their birth families who have rejected them.

In the second part of the book, after Leila’s mind is no longer working, we follow what happens to Leila’s body and how she is treated by the authorities. The five friends seek to honour Leila and gather to discuss how they might do this. The third, and final, part of the book shows us how they find a way to set Leila’s soul free from the constraints of a society that has never accepted her.

This is a book about inequality, poverty, repression and the importance of friendship. The author takes characters who would be overlooked in life and shows us their stories and how they became marginalised, and she also reveals their worth as human beings because of their friendship and what they try to do for Leila.

This is an unusual book and it’s very well written – some of the language is poetic and it’s occasionally quite amusing, although there’s an undertone of sadness. The author uses events of the time, religious imagery, superstition and folk tales to provide a rich and textured background for the story of Leila and her friends. The characters are multi-faceted and no one is all good or all bad. The way that the book is written and how it concentrates on Leila’s mind, body and spirit is clever and works well.

This was, however, a book that I admired rather than enjoyed. I could see the cleverness and appreciate the way that the author depicted the city of Istanbul and its people. I didn’t, however, engage with Leila enough to be gripped by the story. I have at least one more book by this author on my to-be-read piles and so I shall read that in due course to see if I enjoy it more.

My copy of this book came to me via my monthly book subscription and it’s the sort of book which I like to read. The physical copy I have is rather battered (it has at least three prices marked on it from different charity shops) and it has a printing error which means that some of the text is quite faded, but as it’s still readable I shall pop it on the book table at Sainsbury’s and maybe someone else might give it a go.