Elif Şafak has spent her career doing something few writers manage quite like she does: turning history, memory, migration and cultural identity into deeply personal stories. Now, that work has earned her a major European honour.
The British-Turkish novelist and storyteller has been named the 2026 recipient of the Helena Vaz da Silva European Award for Raising Public Awareness on Cultural Heritage, with the jury recognising the way her writing brings Europe’s shared cultural heritage to life and connects different histories, communities and generations.
With 21 books published and her work translated into 58 languages, Şafak has built a body of work that moves effortlessly between Istanbul, London, Cyprus, Mesopotamia and beyond.
So, if you’re wondering where to start, here are a few of her books worth adding to your reading list.
There Are Rivers in the Sky
What happens when water becomes the thread connecting centuries of human history?
Şafak brings together Nineveh, Victorian London and modern-day Turkey, following three lives separated by time but connected by the Tigris, the Thames and an ancient poem: The Epic of Gilgamesh. At its heart, it is a story about memory — and what happens when people, places and cultures are forgotten.
The novel has already picked up the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award and Prix Fragonard de Littérature Étrangère, while becoming a finalist for the Prix Fémina Étranger and Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.
The Forty Rules of Love
If you’ve ever wanted to meet Rumi and Shams beyond the quotes that fill your Instagram feed, start here.
Set against the chaos of 13th-century Anatolia, the novel follows the transformative relationship between the Persian poet Rumi and the wandering dervish Shams of Tabriz. Alongside their story is a contemporary narrative about a woman whose life is changed after encountering their teachings.
It is ultimately a novel about love, spirituality and breaking away from the boundaries imposed by society — which may explain why the book has travelled so far beyond its original setting. The BBC included it among its 100 Novels That Shaped Our World.
The Architect’s Apprentice
Step into 16th-century Istanbul, where an elephant, a young apprentice and one of the Ottoman Empire’s greatest architects become part of the same extraordinary story.
Through the eyes of a young boy named Jahan, Şafak recreates an Istanbul filled with mosques, bridges, aqueducts and imperial ambition, while exploring the people — from craftsmen to enslaved workers — who helped build the city we remember today.
The novel was selected for The Queen’s Reading Room, making it a particularly fitting choice for anyone interested in the architecture, history and multicultural layers of Istanbul.
The Island of Missing Trees
A fig tree remembers what people would rather forget.
Set between 1974 Cyprus and contemporary London, the novel follows Kostas, who is Greek and Christian, and Defne, who is Turkish and Muslim, as they fall in love on an island being torn apart by conflict.
Decades later, their daughter Ada tries to understand the history her parents never fully told her — with a fig tree in her London garden becoming an unexpected link to the island.
The novel was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award, Women’s Prize for Fiction and RSL Ondaatje Prize, among others, and became a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick.
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World
What if the mind keeps remembering after the body has stopped?
That is where Şafak begins this haunting novel, following Tequila Leila, whose brain remains active for 10 minutes and 38 seconds after her death. Each minute unlocks another memory — of food, family, friendship, violence and the people who shaped her life.
Set against Istanbul and centred on a woman whose life existed largely on society’s margins, the novel turns those final minutes into a story about friendship, belonging and being remembered.
It was shortlisted for both the Booker Prize and RSL Ondaatje Prize, and was named Blackwell’s Book of the Year.
And there’s a new book on the way
Şafak isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Her next novel, In One Brief Moment All Eternity, arrives in the UK on 15 October 2026.
This time, she turns to Gustave Flaubert and Madame Bovary — but tells the story through the women surrounding the celebrated writer, including an Egyptian dancer and the women history has pushed into the margins. The novel moves from 19th-century France to Istanbul, Cairo, Palestine and Beirut, returning to one of Şafak’s recurring questions: who gets remembered, and who gets erased?
A fitting award for a writer who writes across borders
The Helena Vaz da Silva Award recognises Şafak for using literature to preserve and celebrate Europe’s shared tangible and intangible cultural heritage, while bringing different histories and perspectives into conversation.
And perhaps that is what connects these books: whether she’s writing about Rumi and Shams, a divided Cyprus, Ottoman Istanbul, ancient Mesopotamia or a woman’s memories in modern-day London, Şafak keeps returning to the same idea — the past doesn’t really disappear. It survives in stories, places, languages and the people who choose to remember.
The award ceremony will take place on 5 November at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal.
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