''10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World'' ( tr, On Dakika Otuz Sekiz Saniye) is a 2019 novel by Turkish writer

Elif Shafak Elif Shafak ( tr, Elif Şafak, ; born 25 October 1971) is a Turkish-British novelist, essayist, public speaker, political scientist and activist. Shafak writes in Turkish and English, and has published 19 works. She is best known for her ...

and her eleventh overall. It is a one-woman story about a

sex worker A sex worker is a person who provides sex work, either on a regular or occasional basis. The term is used in reference to those who work in all areas of the sex industry.Oxford English Dictionary, "sex worker" According to one view, sex work i ...

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

. It was released by

Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim and then acquire ...

in 2019.

Summary

''10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in This Strange World'' opens in 1990 with "Tequila Leila", who is a prostitute. The story has her five outcast friends, who don't share a worthy importance in a liberal country. Leila enters the state of awareness in her last moments, after she has been murdered and left in a dumpster outside Istanbul. "While the Turkish sun rises above her and her friends asleep soundly nearby, she contemplates her mortal existence before eternal rest." In the last minutes she recalls her previous life; "the taste of spiced goat stew, sacrificed by her father to celebrate the long-awaited birth of a son; the sight of bubbling vats of lemon and sugar which the women use to wax their legs while the men attend mosque; the scent of cardamom coffee that Leila shares with a handsome student in the brothel where she works. Each memory, too, recalls the friends she made at each key moment in her life—friends who are now desperately trying to find her..."

Awards

*Shortlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize. *The

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Book of the Year, 2019 *Shortlisted for RSL Ondaatje Prize, 2020

References

{{Elif Shafak 2019 novels Novels by Elif Şafak Novels set in Istanbul Turkish-language novels Novels about prostitution Novels about violence against women Violence against women in Turkey Novels set in the 1990s Fiction set in 1990 Viking Press books