10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in This Strange World: A Review

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘In the first minute following her death, Tequila Leila’s consciousness began to ebb, slowly and steadily, like a tide receding from the shore…’

For Leila, each minute after her death recalls a sensuous memory: spiced goat stew, sacrificed by her father to celebrate the birth of a yearned-for son; bubbling vats of lemon and sugar to wax women’s legs while men are at prayer; the cardamom coffee she shares with a handsome student in the brothel where she works. Each fading memory brings back the friends she made in her bittersweet life – friends who are now desperately trying to find her…

 

The book opens in 1990 in Turkey with the character Tequila Leila, who is a prostitute. Leila has been murdered and left in a dumpster outside Istanbul and has entered a state of awareness in her last moments. As she dies in the dumpster, Leila remembers memories from her past. From the goat stew that was made by her family to celebrate a son being born after waiting for so long to the smell of cardamom coffee that she shared in the brothel where she worked. Each of the memories that Leila recalls also make her remember the friends that she has made at the key moments in her life. Her five friends are outcasts like her. They aren’t considered to be important by others in the country but to Leila, they are the most important people in the world. Her friends are her family and they are desperately trying to find her.

 

I received this book as a gift from my aunt for Christmas and she always gives the best books so I was so excited to read it. I had never heard of Elif Shafak before or this book but it sounded so interesting. The idea that you revisit significant moments of your life before death has been around for a long time but this book explores it so beautifully. 

 

I loved reading this book for a number of reasons. The memories are so vividly written that you feel as if they are your memories. The friendships are so well-written and meaningful that they feel like your real-life friendships. Throughout the book there is a strong focus on the importance of friendship and I loved this the most. For Leila, her friends are her family and they mean so much to her. The different memories that she revisits all link to the strong relationships she built with the five people closest to her. The memories are from her birth, from being a young child, from adulthood to her final breath. She remembers only select memories as most are forgotten but it is clear that they are the most important to her. The memories are the backstories of her friends, whom she calls “one of the five” when they are introduced. They are all from different backgrounds and life experiences but they are all outcasts. But they are Leila’s chosen family.

 

I thought this book was beautiful. It was so emotional and so touching to read. The story itself was not necessarily a happy one. It starts with Leila’s death and there is an underlying sadness when the memories are recounted. I highly recommend this book.

  Until next time, I'll continue reading with wanderlust.

📚🧳✈️🗺