The Forty Rules of Love

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

*One of the BBC''s ''100 Novels that Shaped the World''*

"Every true love and friendship is a story of unexpected transformation. If we are the same person before and after we loved, that means we haven''t loved enough . . ."

Ella Rubinstein has a husband, three teenage children, and a pleasant home. Everything that should make her confident and fulfilled. Yet there is an emptiness at the heart of Ella''s life - an emptiness once filled by love.

So when Ella reads a manuscript about the thirteenth-century Sufi poet Rumi and Shams of Tabriz, and his forty rules of life and love, her world is turned upside down. She embarks on a journey to meet the mysterious author of this work.

It is a quest infused with Sufi mysticism and verse, taking Ella and us into an exotic world where faith and love are heartbreakingly explored. . .

''Enlightening, enthralling. An affecting paean to faith and love'' Metro

''Colourfully woven and beguilingly intelligent'' Daily Telegraph

''The past and present fit together beautifully in a passionate defence of passion itself'' The Times