Ţafak’s best-selling ‘Aţk’ continues to transcend borders with new versions

World-famous Turkish author Elif Ţafak’s novel “Aţk” (Love), narrating the connection between Ella Rubinstein, a middle-aged housewife living in Boston in the 2000s, and Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi, who lived in Konya in the 1200s, has been connecting people all around the world as the book has been already published in the US, the UK, Bulgaria and Italy while it is about to hit bookshelves in France, Denmark, Norway and other countries.

Ţafak thinks that “a good novel” connects people. “A good novel has no strict definition. There are no golden formulas. But intuition is important. You recognize a good novel while you are reading one. That is how it works. If a novel takes us out of our mental ghetto, out of our habitual existence, and helps us to travel into the depths of human condition and brings us back with a new look on life, a new insight, that is a good novel, a transcendental, transformative experience,” she says. Ţafak shared the journey of “Aţk” across the world and her life-long passion for writing fiction with Sunday’s Zaman.

During your last interview with Sunday’s Zaman in September of last year you were set to reach out to the world with “The Forty Rules of Love,” the English version of “Aţk.” What has changed since then? How did your story echo in the world?

Since then “The Forty Rules of Love” has been published in hardcover in the US by Viking and in the UK by Penguin. I did a book tour that covered several cities, such as New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle… Then I went to London and had a book launch there. There were very good reviews, both printed and online. I am also receiving so many e-mails and letters from readers all around the world. The paperback is coming out soon.

What about the other versions of “The Forty Rules of Love?” How many languages it was translated into and what kind of feedback have you received?

In these past months the novel was published in Italy, Bulgaria and now it is coming out in France with a different title, “Sufi Mon Amour.” It is always amazing to me to see how different countries, different cultures design different covers for the same book. The book jackets change so much, the colors, the aesthetics. That is always interesting. As we speak, the novel is being translated into Dutch and German. Then it will come out in Denmark, Norway, and other countries.

Do you feel like you have a mission to spread the story of Rumi and his companion, Ţems-i Tebrizi?

No, I don’t. I do not believe in writing fiction with a mission to teach anyone anything. I am not a teacher. I am a storyteller. I believe in stories. I believe in the power of imagination. I do not situate myself above my readers. We are on the same level -- the writer, the reader and the story.

‘The more I travel, the less I believe in clash of civilizations’

You had many meetings in the US at various venues. What would you say when you compare the reflection of “The Forty Rules of Love” on Turkish and American readers?

There are cultural differences as you move from one country to the next but one thing that strikes me each time is how universal certain things are. Our quest for spirituality, our need to be loved, our humor, sorrow and compassion; all these things are so timeless and placeless, shared by all humanity. The more I travel the world the less I believe in the clash of civilizations. The more I commute between East and West, the less I believe in the categories of “East” and “West.”

Last month, you delivered a speech at TEDGlobal’s annual conference at Oxford University and addressed a highly distinguished audience. How were the reactions you received?

It was truly amazing. The feedback was so positive and moving, people from all religions, cultures and social backgrounds coming and telling me how much they enjoyed the talk, how close they felt to my words. That was very humbling for me. Ever since then I have been receiving e-mails from people all around the world, from India to Brazil, from Iran to Canada. That is amazing.

During your speech, you said: “Stories cannot demolish frontiers, but they can punch holes in our mental walls. And through those holes, we can get a glimpse of the other, and sometimes even like what we see.” Do you think you have managed to punch such holes thanks to “The Forty Rules of Love?” Can you give us some examples?

We all tend to live in some kind of a cultural, mental ghetto. We do it without even realizing it. We want to live with people who are similar to us and we tend to be wary of anyone who looks or is different. Stories help us to transcend these cultural boundaries. The art of fiction is based on building connections and empathy across frontiers. I cannot know how much of that I have achieved with “The Forty Rules of Love” but the feedback from readers was truly positive, moving and inspiring, both spiritually and intellectually. I speak to people’s hearts, not to their minds. The heart is always wiser than the mind.

You say that “from the very beginning, fiction for me was less of an autobiographical manifestation than a transcendental journey into other lives, other possibilities.” What has urged you to explore “other lives and other possibilities”?

I spent a lonely childhood and youth. I was very introverted and I loved books and stories. To me, the world of imagination was much more colorful and real than the world I was living in. This is how it started. I wasn’t interested in writing about myself. Not the least bit. I wanted to discover other people’s lives, other stories, other possibilities. I am a nomad, both in soul and mind. When I write I travel into other forms of existence. This is what I discovered when I was much younger, that through stories we can travel endlessly in time and space.

Could you elaborate on the “tendency to see a story as more than a story”? Is it widespread in Turkey?

Yes, it is. The tendency to see a story as more than a story can be very burdensome and limiting for writers. For instance, some of my readers have told me that they loved “The Forty Rules of Love” but they could not understand how a married woman with children could ever fall in love with someone else and it was not right to write about this. And I ask them, are there no such cases in the world? They say, well yes, but when you write about it, it becomes a role model. The characters in a novel are not supposed to be role models. I wrote about one woman. One story. One family. Ella does not represent all the married women in the world. She has her own story. In another book I will write about a different kind of a woman and so on. Sometimes we miss this simple point. A character in a novel is a single personality; she does not represent a collective identity. If we don’t see a story as a story, we cannot understand literature.

You complain that writers are not seen as creative individuals on their own, but as the representatives of their respective cultures. Aren’t you or your characters representatives of your culture in any way?

“Belonging” and “representation” is not the same thing. My characters have cultural belongings. But if I start to think that every Turkish female character in each of my novels represents all the Turkish women, or let’s say, one fictional character with headscarf represents all such women, how can I ever develop a story? Then we will start to see all women as one prototype. The art of novel thrives upon nuances, not sweeping generalizations. Of course, there are cultural reflections and belongings, and I like them very much. But fictional characters are not designed to be like diplomats representing a culture.

When will your readers be able to read your new novel? Can you give us some clues? Will traces of Sufism be found in your upcoming novel as well?

There are always traces of Sufism in my fiction, but my next novel will be very different than “The Forty Rules of Love.” I wrote about love and now I will write about how we hurt the ones we love. Some of my readers keep asking if there will be a sequel to “The Forty Rules of Love,” but I prefer to write a new story, make a new journey with each new book.

15 August 2010

ŢULE KULU

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