Sam Leith Sam Leith

Spectator Books: Elif Shafak on life after death

My guest in this week’s podcast is the Turkish novelist Elif Shafak, whose latest novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World has just been shortlisted alongside Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood for this year’s Man Booker Prize. Elif talks to me about living in exile, writing in a second language, her relationship with Istanbul, and how the West’s culture war over ‘free speech’ looks to someone from a country where free speech can get you thrown in jail, or worse.

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