Turkish/British Author Elif Shafak's 10 Minutes and 38 Seconds

Novelist Elif Shafak is a British/Turkish novelist whose latest novel "10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in this Strange World" received a 2019 Booker nomination and put Shafak under investigation by Turkish authorities.  The novel is set in and around Istanbul.  Shafak doesn't paint a flattering picture of the cruelties in Turkish society and the extremest views of Muslim religious zealots.  The title refers to the 10 minutes and 38 seconds Leila retains consciousness after her murder. Leila conjures up memories she didn't realize she possessed and reminisces on her life in the family she was born and the friends she loved that formed her chosen family.  The novel starts with the mystifying premise that despite her demise, Leila's mind hasn't shut down.  "The dead did not die instantly, they could, in fact continue to select on things, including their own demise."  Leila's heart stopped but her brain enters a realm of heightened awareness.  She reflects on her remarkable entry into the world and observations of the equanimity in death.  The midwife recognized the newborn as a stubborn & rebellious soul.  The wise midwife knew the way to get through life unscathed is to know when to enter & when to exit. Leila noted in the morgue "Cops and criminals shed their dead skin cells on the same floor, and the same dust mites gobbled them up, without favor or partiality."  The journey through Leila's life as viewed from within her corpse are hauntingly vivid.  The clock runs down on Leila's remaining minutes within her being uncovering moments in time that marked unknown milestones.  The ephemeral storytelling of the first half of the novel is intoxicating.  The 2nd half takes Leila out of the narration and delves into the lives of the friends who formed her true family.  These colorful characters mark outcasts of society: whores, transvestites, or political activists.  The novel's trajectory turns theological & political as viewed through these individuals.  Religion, power, money and politics are a manmade construct, construed as superstitious beliefs that hinder humans of insight and quashes self-esteem to the point where people mistrust & fear anything & everything.  Leila's devout friend is pained by the actualization religion which had brought her hope, love & resiliency oppresses others.  "The teachings that warmed her heart and brought her close to all humanity, regardless of creed, color or nationality, could be interpreted in such a way that they divided, confused and separated human beings, sowing seeds of enmity and bloodshed".  Shafak's astonishing novel adheres in the mind long after having been digested.