Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World

  • By: Elif Shafak
  • Narrated by: Alix Dunmore
  • Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (6 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World cover art

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World

By: Elif Shafak
Narrated by: Alix Dunmore
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Water Thief cover art
A Conspiracy of Mothers cover art
Watch Us Dance cover art
My Name Is Anton cover art
Out of the Silence cover art
The Girl He Left Behind cover art
Season of Crimson Blossoms cover art
The Murmur of Bees cover art
The Covenant of Water cover art
The Complete Jaipur Trilogy cover art
Furies cover art
Arrested Song cover art
Where the Lost Wander cover art
The Separation cover art
The Japanese Lover cover art
The Poisonwood Bible cover art

Summary

Bloomsbury presents 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak, read by Alix Dunmore.

Shortlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize 

A moving novel on the power of friendship in our darkest times, from internationally renowned writer and speaker Elif Shafak.

In the pulsating moments after she has been murdered and left in a dumpster outside Istanbul, Tequila Leila enters a state of heightened awareness. Her heart has stopped beating, but her brain is still active - for 10 minutes 38 seconds. While the Turkish sun rises and her friends sleep soundly nearby, she remembers her life - and the lives of others, outcasts like her. 

Tequila Leila’s memories bring us back to her childhood in the provinces, a highly oppressive milieu with religion and traditions, shaped by a polygamous family with two mothers and an increasingly authoritarian father. Escaping to Istanbul, Leila makes her way into the sordid industry of sex trafficking, finding a home in the city’s historic Street of Brothels. This is a dark, violent world, but Leila is tough and open to beauty, light and the essential bonds of friendship. 

In Tequila Leila’s death, the secrets and wonders of modern Istanbul come to life, painted vividly by the captivating tales of how Leila came to know and be loved by her friends. As her epic journey to the afterlife comes to an end, it is her chosen family who brings her story to a buoyant and breathtaking conclusion.

©2019 Elif Shafak (P)2019 Penguin Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"A deeply humane story about the cruel effects of Turkey’s intolerant sexual attitudes...Shafak is a master of captivating moments that provide a sprawling and intimate vision of Istanbul.... Ultimately, 10 Minutes isn’t really about death, but the persistence of love...Leila’s ragtag friends, scorned and mocked by polite society, can’t possibly triumph over the forces of religious and political corruption, but they - and Shafak - manage to create something truly subversive: a community of devotion beyond the reach of state or mosque." (The Washington Post)

"Extraordinary...a piercing, unflinching look at the trauma women’s minds and bodies are subjected to in a social system defined by patriarchal codes." (The Guardian)  

"Lyrical and often magical...a love-letter to Istanbul." (The Economist)

What listeners say about 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.