As part of #BannedBooksWeek I wanted to raise the importance and impact of books representing the voice of the silenced. The Turkish writer, Elif Shafak, does a wonderful job of this. Shafak is the author of The Gaze, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds In this Strange World, The Forty Rules of Love, The Bastard of Istanbul, Black Milk and her latest, The Island of Missing Trees.

Shafak says "The novel is one of our last democratic spaces. It is one of our last remaining democratic spaces in today’s extremely polarised world. In my novels, I question taboos — political, cultural, social and sexual taboos. I believe it is a novelist’s job to ask questions about difficult issues and some of these issues might have been suppressed, silenced, censored — but it’s not my intention in any way to try to “preach” the answers. I don’t like that. I always leave the answers to the readers. But literature should be able to raise honest questions and in doing so, make the invisible a bit more visible, make the unheard a bit more heard, and bring the periphery to the centre and give the disempowered a bit more power."

What do you think a novel should do? And have you read any of Shafak's books? Would love to hear your thoughts. Also if you are interested in Bibliotherapy, Literature & Mental Health, you might find this online course helpful: [ Ссылка ]

#books #novels #bestbooks #authors #booktherapy #bibliotherapy #turkish #novelists #love #writing #life #political #politicalart #art #elifshafak @elifshafak #bannedbooks #bannedbooksweek2021

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