Turkish · b. 1971
Elif Shafak has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize twice—for "10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World" and "The Island of Missing Trees." The Turkish-British author writes novels that span continents and centuries, often centered on women's experience and Turkey's suppressed histories. Shafak's fiction insists on the political relevance of storytelling, finding in imagination a tool for empathy and understanding.