The Forty Rules of Love

Description

A novel within a novel, “The Forty Rules of Love,” tells two parallel stories that unfold across two vastly different cultures and seven intertwined centuries. The story begins when a housewife, Ella, receives a copy of “Sweet Rowing” for evaluation. This book is about the 13th-century poet Shams of Tabriz, the spiritual mentor of Rumi. “Sweet Rowing” presents Shams’s “Forty Rules of Love” across different time periods. The narrative structure of “Sweet Rowing” focuses on the five elements of nature: water, air, earth, fire, and emptiness. The chapters of each section reveal a story that corresponds to the nature of each element. The overall narrative is based on “love and spirituality, which explains the meaning of following one’s heart.”