The Gaze - by Elif Shafak (Paperback)

About the Book

"First published in Turkey as Mahrem by Metis Yayinlari in 1999; first published in Great Britain and in the USA by Marian Boyars Publishers Ltd [in] 2006; published in Penguin Books [in] 2010; reissued in this edition"--Copyright page.

Book Synopsis

From award-winning writer Elif Shafak, the Orange Prize long-listed author of The Forty Rules of Love and The Architect's Apprentice, The Gaze is a humorous and carnivalesque exploration of what it means to look and be looked at...

An obese woman and her lover, a dwarf, are sick of being stared at wherever they go and so decide to reverse roles. The man goes out wearing make-up and the woman draws a moustache on her face.

This elegant, unforgettable novel explores our desire to look at others.

'Beautifully evoked' The Times

'Original and compelling' TLS

*** ELIF SHAFAK'S NEW NOVEL, THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY, IS AVAILABLE NOW ***

Review Quotes

Beautifully evoked--The Times

Original and compelling--TLS

Plays with ideas of beauty and ugliness like they're Rubik's cubes--

Entertaining and affecting--Publishers' Weekly

Elif Shafak is the best author to come out of Turkey in the last decade--

A gorgeous novel: worldly, intriguing, raucous yet elegant, teeming with love and cruelty - and brilliantly alive--A.D. Miller

Shafak's novel is a carefully crafted work of imagination... [it] will confirm Shafak's reputation as a writer of impressive range, who is not afraid to ask the big questions--Financial Times

Shafak paints a gorgeous picture of a city teeming with secrets, intrigue and romance. Lush--The Times

Vividly evoked, beautifully written... this edifying novel shows how hate and envy destroy, and how love might build the world anew--Observer

Shafak blends historical fiction, urban politics and youthful curiosity in an elaborate map of Turkey whose key is the book itself--Guardian

About the Author

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist, whose work has been translated into fifty-eight languages. The author of twenty books, thirteen of which are novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak's novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize. The Island of Missing Trees was a Sunday Times bestseller, and was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and the Women's Prize for Fiction. There are Rivers in the Sky, which won an Edward Stanford Award for Fiction, is her latest novel.

Shafak holds a PhD in political science, and is a Fellow and a Vice President of the Royal Society of Literature. She has been awarded the medal of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and, in 2024, was awarded the British Academy President's Medal for 'her excellent body of work which demonstrates an incredible intercultural range'.