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In One Brief Moment All Eternity
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Expected 12 Jan 27Win a free print copy of this book!
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10 copies available
U.S. only
In One Brief Moment All Eternity is an astonishing new novel by the bestselling, prize-winning novelist Elif Shafak. Spanning decades and continents, from revolutionary 19th century France to Istanbul, Egypt and Beirut, it is a profound meditation on creativity in times of political crisis and war, asking what literature can hope to offer when the world feels broken. Building a fascinating bridge between Western prose and Eastern poetry, this story offers a luminous portrait of the life of an iconic writer, Gustave Flaubert, author of Madame Bovary, told through the lives of the women – both real and fictional – who shaped him.
'Make place for Elif Shafak on your bookshelf. Make place for her in your heart too. You won't regret it' ARUNDHATI ROY
'A unique and powerful voice in world literature' IAN MCEWAN
'Make place for Elif Shafak on your bookshelf. Make place for her in your heart too. You won't regret it' ARUNDHATI ROY
'A unique and powerful voice in world literature' IAN MCEWAN
608 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication January 12, 2027
About the author
Elif Shafak
77 books36.5k followersElif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist and the most widely read female author in Turkey. She writes in both Turkish and English, and has published seventeen books, eleven of which are novels. Her work has been translated into fifty languages. Shafak holds a PhD in political science and she has taught at various universities in Turkey, the US and the UK, including St Anne's College, Oxford University, where she is an honorary fellow. She is a member of Weforum Global Agenda Council on Creative Economy and a founding member of ECFR (European Council on Foreign Relations). An advocate for women's rights, LGBT rights and freedom of speech, Shafak is an inspiring public speaker and twice a TED Global speaker, each time receiving a standing ovation. Shafak contributes to major publications around the world and she has been awarded the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. In 2017 she was chosen by Politico as one of the twelve people who would make the world better. She has judged numerous literary prizes and is chairing the Wellcome Prize 2019. www.elifshafak.com
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
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May 13, 2026OMG, give it to me now!
August 25, 2026
This is an unusual novel, as in some respects it reads like a creative biography of Gustave Flaubert, the 19th-century writer best known for Madame Bovary. But Shafak makes it clear in her author's note that although many of the details were based in fact, this is, rather, a fictionalized account of Flaubert's life and his dedication to literature above all else. The most creative aspect of this book, though, isn't that bending of genre but that different moments in his life are narrated by women, from his mother and sister to lovers, friends, passing acquaintances, and even a city, a camel, and his most famous character. The novel reads like a work from Flaubert's time, with a richness of language and a slower pace that are so often lacking in more modern works (and happen to be two things I love). While Flaubert faced adversity and dark times throughout his life -- failure to live up to his father's expectations, the deaths of his father and sister, war, illness, etc. -- he remained dedicated to the power of literature to uplift and give life meaning. And that is very much what was behind Shafak's thinking in writing this book, at a time when we are facing war and conflict, climate change, and uncertainty, as she notes: "Literature cannot stop wars or heal hurts, but without it, without stories, we each would be so much lonelier."
Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This book will be published January 12, 2027.
Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This book will be published January 12, 2027.
September 8, 2026
Shafak’s writing has always reached into the very corners of my soul. She possesses this extraordinary gift for taking the most fragile, ephemeral human experiences and preserving them inside shimmering, material stories that feel like entire lifetimes are lived. Illuminating people and cultures distant from my own. Shafak’s eye commands worlds that feel living. Worlds like a hundred rivers meeting each other. This book gives women a fierce reclamation of history.
This was absolutely sublime and a noble effort at reimagining the life of Gustave Flaubert: a solitary writer living during the 1848 French Revolution. At first I was tentative of the plot, but Shafak paints this vast world that you can almost drink up. A sensory dervish that takes you across sweeping continents. It is both sorrowful and wonderful in equal measure. Bizarre and terribly moving. Shafak completely shatters the mirror of Flaubert’s brief history into a thousand dazzling shards. Filth and beauty dance with one another and god are we embroiled in it. The drear of Rouen where he grows up surrounded by bodies and rotten death, and the many inhabitants of his insular world. The devoted, charming nursemaid weaving folklore into the young Gustave’s mind, the mesmerizing Egyptian dancer he became enamoured by, and the fiercely jealous lover who demands immortality from the pages of history.
Gustave is like an untethered kite, floating dreamily. We too, are dreamily ferried across the sun-drenched horizons of Cairo, Palestine, Beirut, and the ancient shores of Istanbul. If I close my eyes I am there, that is how magical Shafak’s words are. Those were my favourite chapters of all. Kuchuk Hanem the exotic dancer in Esna was magnetic, even if a fleeting character. I wanted more of her. Rather than just the exotic muse of a European man and traveller, she becomes a sharp observer. All the women in this story are observers. I loved every single one of them.
This was absolutely sublime and a noble effort at reimagining the life of Gustave Flaubert: a solitary writer living during the 1848 French Revolution. At first I was tentative of the plot, but Shafak paints this vast world that you can almost drink up. A sensory dervish that takes you across sweeping continents. It is both sorrowful and wonderful in equal measure. Bizarre and terribly moving. Shafak completely shatters the mirror of Flaubert’s brief history into a thousand dazzling shards. Filth and beauty dance with one another and god are we embroiled in it. The drear of Rouen where he grows up surrounded by bodies and rotten death, and the many inhabitants of his insular world. The devoted, charming nursemaid weaving folklore into the young Gustave’s mind, the mesmerizing Egyptian dancer he became enamoured by, and the fiercely jealous lover who demands immortality from the pages of history.
Gustave is like an untethered kite, floating dreamily. We too, are dreamily ferried across the sun-drenched horizons of Cairo, Palestine, Beirut, and the ancient shores of Istanbul. If I close my eyes I am there, that is how magical Shafak’s words are. Those were my favourite chapters of all. Kuchuk Hanem the exotic dancer in Esna was magnetic, even if a fleeting character. I wanted more of her. Rather than just the exotic muse of a European man and traveller, she becomes a sharp observer. All the women in this story are observers. I loved every single one of them.
Review of advance copy
A character who has never drawn breath opens In One Brief Moment All Eternity by Elif Shafak by accusing the man who made her of a poisoning. Emma Bovary has had one hundred and sixty-nine years to think about the arsenic, and she starts talking on page one.
What follows is not the argument you expect. This is a life of Gustave Flaubert assembled almost entirely out of women's testimony: the nursemaid who told him folk tales, the mother who could not forgive him for surviving, the dancer in Esna who gave him a shawl and something worse, the prosecutor's wife who read every book her husband banned. Thirty of them speak, in numbered chapters, and the novel withholds until its final pages exactly why the number is thirty.
The Man in the Third Person, the Women in the First
Shafak makes one structural decision early and never wavers from it. Flaubert himself is rendered in a cool, present-tense third person, chapter by chapter, each headed with a colour and an object: the yellow butterfly, the verdigris teapot, the crimson flag, the ebony bread. Every woman who interrupts him speaks in first person, and speaks for herself.
The effect is quietly devastating and takes a while to register. He is the one being observed, catalogued, described. They are the ones with interiority. A novelist famous for the sentence "Madame Bovary, c'est moi" spends four hundred pages being watched by people he assumed were scenery.
Not all of the thirty narrators in In One Brief Moment All Eternity by Elif Shafak are human. Istanbul narrates a chapter as one enormous unspooling sentence and ends it with a piece of information Flaubert took home with him. Opium introduces itself as the Brown Fairy. Syphilis has a chapter. So does Jamilah, a camel who appears first at a provincial circus and later in the Paris zoo during the siege, and whose account of her own end is the single hardest page in the book. That Shafak can move from a bacterium to a bereaved baker without the register cracking is the technical achievement here.
Five Parts, One Long Illness
The frame is a life in five stages, from childhood at the Hotel-Dieu in Rouen, where the young Gustave climbs a trellis to look at cadavers in his father's dissection theatre, through the Paris law years, the Egyptian voyage, the obscenity trial of 1857, and the long decline at Croisset. Readers who come to In One Brief Moment All Eternity by Elif Shafak for the writing life will find it: the five years of composition, the shouting of sentences aloud, the mercury pills that make his gums bleed.
What they may not expect is how much of the book is about illness and political violence. Epilepsy structures the whole novel, since every appearance of the mythical Simurgh turns out to be attached to a seizure. The Paris Commune occupies most of Part Four, and the chapter narrated by a baker shot at Pere Lachaise, who becomes a ghost and follows Flaubert through the graves trying to make him hear her, is the best thing in the book by some distance.
The title of In One Brief Moment All Eternity by Elif Shafak comes from Attar's The Conference of the Birds, which Flaubert buys in a Smyrna bazaar in Part Three. Anyone who knows what si-murgh means in Persian will see the ending coming a long way off. That does not spoil it. It makes the last chapter land harder.
What Works
The ventriloquism. Eleanor Marx, who really did produce the first English translation of Madame Bovary, gets a chapter of extraordinary pressure, moving between dock strikes, her father's concealed son, and a novel she rereads three times and understands differently each time. It reads like nobody else in the book.
The physical world. Rouen smells of ether and river mud; Esna smells of rose otto and dust. Shafak keeps her sensory detail specific and unshowy, and it does most of the historical work without a single lecture.
Caroline. The niece Flaubert raised gets the coolest and cruellest testimony of the thirty, and her account of what she later did with his manuscripts turns the novel's argument about censorship inside out.
The last fifty pages. A vision, an old Persian poem, and a diagnosis modern medicine did not have a name for until the 1990s, folded together without a wasted movement.
Where It Stumbles
Not every voice earns its number. A few testimonies run three pages and function as historical footnotes rather than people. The chorus is strongest when a woman has a grievance and weakest when she has only information.
The Commune chapters lecture. Shafak's own convictions about political extremism arrive in long authorial paragraphs that step away from Flaubert entirely. They are convincing and they are also the place where the novel most obviously stops being a novel.
The thesis gets stated. A scene in which a young critic publishes an article asking why Flaubert's female characters never speak explains the book's design out loud, several hundred pages after we had understood it.
The aphorisms accumulate. Some are superb. Some read like the wisdom-literature register Shafak has always been drawn to, and by Part Five they arrive faster than they can be absorbed.
Who Should Read In One Brief Moment All Eternity by Elif Shafak
Reach for it if you like polyphonic historical fiction, novels about how books get made, or any book that hands the microphone to whoever the record ignored. Skip it if you want a conventional biographical novel with a single narrative line, or if 1870s French political history sounds like homework.
The Last Word on In One Brief Moment All Eternity by Elif Shafak
Ambitious books usually pay for their ambition somewhere, and this one pays for it in a slack middle stretch and a handful of narrators who exist to fill a slot. What it buys with that spending is a final movement of real beauty, and an argument about literature that it earns rather than asserts: that a story can outlive the storyteller, and that the people written into the margins were never as quiet as the margins made them look. Flaubert said talent was only a long patience. So, it turns out, is being heard.
What follows is not the argument you expect. This is a life of Gustave Flaubert assembled almost entirely out of women's testimony: the nursemaid who told him folk tales, the mother who could not forgive him for surviving, the dancer in Esna who gave him a shawl and something worse, the prosecutor's wife who read every book her husband banned. Thirty of them speak, in numbered chapters, and the novel withholds until its final pages exactly why the number is thirty.
The Man in the Third Person, the Women in the First
Shafak makes one structural decision early and never wavers from it. Flaubert himself is rendered in a cool, present-tense third person, chapter by chapter, each headed with a colour and an object: the yellow butterfly, the verdigris teapot, the crimson flag, the ebony bread. Every woman who interrupts him speaks in first person, and speaks for herself.
The effect is quietly devastating and takes a while to register. He is the one being observed, catalogued, described. They are the ones with interiority. A novelist famous for the sentence "Madame Bovary, c'est moi" spends four hundred pages being watched by people he assumed were scenery.
Not all of the thirty narrators in In One Brief Moment All Eternity by Elif Shafak are human. Istanbul narrates a chapter as one enormous unspooling sentence and ends it with a piece of information Flaubert took home with him. Opium introduces itself as the Brown Fairy. Syphilis has a chapter. So does Jamilah, a camel who appears first at a provincial circus and later in the Paris zoo during the siege, and whose account of her own end is the single hardest page in the book. That Shafak can move from a bacterium to a bereaved baker without the register cracking is the technical achievement here.
Five Parts, One Long Illness
The frame is a life in five stages, from childhood at the Hotel-Dieu in Rouen, where the young Gustave climbs a trellis to look at cadavers in his father's dissection theatre, through the Paris law years, the Egyptian voyage, the obscenity trial of 1857, and the long decline at Croisset. Readers who come to In One Brief Moment All Eternity by Elif Shafak for the writing life will find it: the five years of composition, the shouting of sentences aloud, the mercury pills that make his gums bleed.
What they may not expect is how much of the book is about illness and political violence. Epilepsy structures the whole novel, since every appearance of the mythical Simurgh turns out to be attached to a seizure. The Paris Commune occupies most of Part Four, and the chapter narrated by a baker shot at Pere Lachaise, who becomes a ghost and follows Flaubert through the graves trying to make him hear her, is the best thing in the book by some distance.
The title of In One Brief Moment All Eternity by Elif Shafak comes from Attar's The Conference of the Birds, which Flaubert buys in a Smyrna bazaar in Part Three. Anyone who knows what si-murgh means in Persian will see the ending coming a long way off. That does not spoil it. It makes the last chapter land harder.
What Works
The ventriloquism. Eleanor Marx, who really did produce the first English translation of Madame Bovary, gets a chapter of extraordinary pressure, moving between dock strikes, her father's concealed son, and a novel she rereads three times and understands differently each time. It reads like nobody else in the book.
The physical world. Rouen smells of ether and river mud; Esna smells of rose otto and dust. Shafak keeps her sensory detail specific and unshowy, and it does most of the historical work without a single lecture.
Caroline. The niece Flaubert raised gets the coolest and cruellest testimony of the thirty, and her account of what she later did with his manuscripts turns the novel's argument about censorship inside out.
The last fifty pages. A vision, an old Persian poem, and a diagnosis modern medicine did not have a name for until the 1990s, folded together without a wasted movement.
Where It Stumbles
Not every voice earns its number. A few testimonies run three pages and function as historical footnotes rather than people. The chorus is strongest when a woman has a grievance and weakest when she has only information.
The Commune chapters lecture. Shafak's own convictions about political extremism arrive in long authorial paragraphs that step away from Flaubert entirely. They are convincing and they are also the place where the novel most obviously stops being a novel.
The thesis gets stated. A scene in which a young critic publishes an article asking why Flaubert's female characters never speak explains the book's design out loud, several hundred pages after we had understood it.
The aphorisms accumulate. Some are superb. Some read like the wisdom-literature register Shafak has always been drawn to, and by Part Five they arrive faster than they can be absorbed.
Who Should Read In One Brief Moment All Eternity by Elif Shafak
Reach for it if you like polyphonic historical fiction, novels about how books get made, or any book that hands the microphone to whoever the record ignored. Skip it if you want a conventional biographical novel with a single narrative line, or if 1870s French political history sounds like homework.
The Last Word on In One Brief Moment All Eternity by Elif Shafak
Ambitious books usually pay for their ambition somewhere, and this one pays for it in a slack middle stretch and a handful of narrators who exist to fill a slot. What it buys with that spending is a final movement of real beauty, and an argument about literature that it earns rather than asserts: that a story can outlive the storyteller, and that the people written into the margins were never as quiet as the margins made them look. Flaubert said talent was only a long patience. So, it turns out, is being heard.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thanks to NetGalley and Viking for the gifted copy of this title in return for an honest review.
This is at least 200-250 pages longer than my ideal book length which does start it off on the back foot. But the fact that it's an Elif book instantly gives it a gold star.
It is not an easy book to read, but it is an enjoyable one, a passionate and interesting book, well worth reading.
What a novel way of writing - Gustave's life is told through a number of women he created and lived around. It shouldn't work but it does. Which shouldn't be surprising really as Elif's book are never straight forward but always work.
It takes a special author who can make long passages of description or world building feel exciting instead of dragged out and she's done that.
For a book over 600 pages, nothing really happens, and yet everything happens. It's thin on actual plot but the characters we follow are marvellously written and become a part of the plot itself.
I don't know how much of Gustave's background is true and how much is artistic license, but it all feels so real, so tangible. And it's made me want to dig out my copy of Madame Bovary.
It sort of reads like an embellished memoir of the author, but with the twist of having his life narrated on by women that gives it that artistic edge.
I love that Gustave is only ever seen in the third person whilst the women are in first person. Which in a story set in 1800s is quite unusual as women were almost invisible. But Gustave is the one being carefully observed by women at all moments in his life, even from his imagination.
I may not have read Madame Bovary before but I am aware of its story. I do wonder if I'd get more out of this if I ad rea it, if I'd understand more about the characters and personality of Gustave.
I mean, I'm going to be honest, it is too long for me. I enjoyed what was there and it was beautifully written, but I can't help but wonder if it could have been cut down slightly and still maintain its power. The issue is, what do you cut? It follows 30 women, and I can't pick a single one that is worthy of being cut, and yet I still needed it to be shorter. It's a creative conundrum.
I find it difficult to review an Elif Shafak book, to truly convey the emotions that her words bring out. So, now I have finished I will definitely suggest you read it yourself. Every reader will find something different in it and only you can figure out what that is and what it means to you.
This is at least 200-250 pages longer than my ideal book length which does start it off on the back foot. But the fact that it's an Elif book instantly gives it a gold star.
It is not an easy book to read, but it is an enjoyable one, a passionate and interesting book, well worth reading.
What a novel way of writing - Gustave's life is told through a number of women he created and lived around. It shouldn't work but it does. Which shouldn't be surprising really as Elif's book are never straight forward but always work.
It takes a special author who can make long passages of description or world building feel exciting instead of dragged out and she's done that.
For a book over 600 pages, nothing really happens, and yet everything happens. It's thin on actual plot but the characters we follow are marvellously written and become a part of the plot itself.
I don't know how much of Gustave's background is true and how much is artistic license, but it all feels so real, so tangible. And it's made me want to dig out my copy of Madame Bovary.
It sort of reads like an embellished memoir of the author, but with the twist of having his life narrated on by women that gives it that artistic edge.
I love that Gustave is only ever seen in the third person whilst the women are in first person. Which in a story set in 1800s is quite unusual as women were almost invisible. But Gustave is the one being carefully observed by women at all moments in his life, even from his imagination.
I may not have read Madame Bovary before but I am aware of its story. I do wonder if I'd get more out of this if I ad rea it, if I'd understand more about the characters and personality of Gustave.
I mean, I'm going to be honest, it is too long for me. I enjoyed what was there and it was beautifully written, but I can't help but wonder if it could have been cut down slightly and still maintain its power. The issue is, what do you cut? It follows 30 women, and I can't pick a single one that is worthy of being cut, and yet I still needed it to be shorter. It's a creative conundrum.
I find it difficult to review an Elif Shafak book, to truly convey the emotions that her words bring out. So, now I have finished I will definitely suggest you read it yourself. Every reader will find something different in it and only you can figure out what that is and what it means to you.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I've long loved Elif Shafak's writing ("There are Rivers in the Sky" and "The Island of Missing Trees" are some of my favorite novels), so I was beyond excited to get an advance copy of her upcoming work, even with the rather daunting length (over 600 pages)! It's a slight dovetail from her earlier stories, as it's centered on the life of the Gustave Flaubert, the author of "Madame Bovery", but adds her own unique interpretations and retelling to it.
The novel is largely chronological, opening with Gustave's childhood and upbringing in an esteemed French household where his family assumed he would follow in the footsteps of his physician father and older brother. Yet, even from a young age, Gustave has known he's different, from the ghosts he sees around him to his love of literature and art. The story alternates between a third-person perspective centered on Gustave to the first person narrative told from the women around him - including those who have known him for much of his life like his nursemaid Julie as well as his mother and sister Caroline, to those that he only has a brief interaction with, like the innkeeper who gives him refuge when he goes through an unexpected epileptic seizure and the young tutor who disguises herself as a man in order to make a living. Some even break the constraints of form and reality, but each is thoughtfully and lovingly crafted to flesh out Flaubert as a person.
While this structure took some time for me to adapt to, I've truly appreciated just how unique and deliberate it was done and gave so much depth to the protagonist as well as supporting characters. The voices were distinct and varied, shedding light not only on Gustave's thoughts and motivations but also the people around him. I loved as well the overlap of stories and names to characters in "Madame Bovary", giving potential context and clarity on the inspiration to so many individuals and plotlines in the famed novel. Shafak's prose is a real work of art - lyrical, complex, and poetic - carrying the novel along smoothly in spite of its length, revealing just how personal art in its many shapes and forms can truly be.
Very much a recommended read once "In One Brief Moment All Eternity" is published in October 2026!
The novel is largely chronological, opening with Gustave's childhood and upbringing in an esteemed French household where his family assumed he would follow in the footsteps of his physician father and older brother. Yet, even from a young age, Gustave has known he's different, from the ghosts he sees around him to his love of literature and art. The story alternates between a third-person perspective centered on Gustave to the first person narrative told from the women around him - including those who have known him for much of his life like his nursemaid Julie as well as his mother and sister Caroline, to those that he only has a brief interaction with, like the innkeeper who gives him refuge when he goes through an unexpected epileptic seizure and the young tutor who disguises herself as a man in order to make a living. Some even break the constraints of form and reality, but each is thoughtfully and lovingly crafted to flesh out Flaubert as a person.
While this structure took some time for me to adapt to, I've truly appreciated just how unique and deliberate it was done and gave so much depth to the protagonist as well as supporting characters. The voices were distinct and varied, shedding light not only on Gustave's thoughts and motivations but also the people around him. I loved as well the overlap of stories and names to characters in "Madame Bovary", giving potential context and clarity on the inspiration to so many individuals and plotlines in the famed novel. Shafak's prose is a real work of art - lyrical, complex, and poetic - carrying the novel along smoothly in spite of its length, revealing just how personal art in its many shapes and forms can truly be.
Very much a recommended read once "In One Brief Moment All Eternity" is published in October 2026!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
One of the best reads of 2026!
" When he thinks of his solitude, his strangeness, he is convinced that life is only tolerable if you have a passion, which does not mean you have to be successful, only sincere, otherwise you would die."
A new Elif Shafak novel is always something to look forward to and this book is fictional writing of the highest quality. Gripping, meticulously plotted and weaving history with a magical surrealism. I was hooked from page one and devoured the novel over a few days.
One hundred and seventy years ago saw the book publication of Gustave Flaubert's 'scandalous' story of Emma Bovary - a woman who follows a path of affairs and extravagance to escape the monotony of a dull marriage - ultimately leading to suicide by arsenic. The book resulted in a famous court case.
This was a powerful story written by a man exploring the life of a woman but what would happen if the tables were turned and the story of the author's life was written from the perspective of and told by the women in his life; not just one woman. but thirty different characters he encounters during his life- some family and close friends or others he meets through circumstance and his insatiable curiosity to understand the human condition.
Elif Shafak takes us on a journey through the life of Gustave Flaubert- from his turbulent childhood living in a hospital and close to a morgue where as a boy he connected to the world around by observing life through a very different lens of understanding; onto teenage years in a boarding school where his sense of isolation or disconnection became an inner strength; his adult life of exploring Paris and travels to Egypt, Turkey and Beirut experiencing and witnessing different lives and his years as an author developing and building his craft drawing upon the events and encounters he had made especially in relation to women. and people who are hidden beneath the veneer of bourgeois life.
" He despises 'the champions of law and order' with their claims of moral superiority. As far as he is concerned, the outsider is more genuine and much more lovable than. the so-called 'respectable citizens'.
The stories of his life are full of beautiful detailed observations capturing the inner thoughts of all around Flaubert and the author's own personal challenges and reflections. Elif Shafak research weaves wonderful descriptions of the world in which Flaubert exists and observes. Chapters are often titled using a colour palette of hues, tints and shades that highlight the way in which Flaubert observed the world - the small details that he relished and from within his own personal health.
This isn't just a fictional biography but something much more intense and important. This is a recognition and plea to all of us to cherish the world of literature; the art of the writer; the need for books ; the power of the written word; the power of being different and not just accepting the world us. In a world where AI is hijacking the works of others and diminishing the capacity to question, be imaginative or just dive into book, this novel sounds the alarm of what we could lose if we don't let individualism flourish in fictional writing.
Flaubert at one point says to his niece, " Do not read, a children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, my dear, read in order to live." In one sentence so much is encapsulated,
Elif Sahfak is the consummate novelist and this is a wonderful novel. The stylistic device of moving between perspectives ( with small vignettes of a character's life brought to mind the earlier works of Garcia Marquez and Allende. Hypnotic, beguiling and powerful.
One of my favourite books of 2026 without a doubt - storytelling that goes beyond superlatives.
Highly recommend .
Thank you to Viking Books/penguin random House and net galley for the advance copy for an honest and unbiased review.
" When he thinks of his solitude, his strangeness, he is convinced that life is only tolerable if you have a passion, which does not mean you have to be successful, only sincere, otherwise you would die."
A new Elif Shafak novel is always something to look forward to and this book is fictional writing of the highest quality. Gripping, meticulously plotted and weaving history with a magical surrealism. I was hooked from page one and devoured the novel over a few days.
One hundred and seventy years ago saw the book publication of Gustave Flaubert's 'scandalous' story of Emma Bovary - a woman who follows a path of affairs and extravagance to escape the monotony of a dull marriage - ultimately leading to suicide by arsenic. The book resulted in a famous court case.
This was a powerful story written by a man exploring the life of a woman but what would happen if the tables were turned and the story of the author's life was written from the perspective of and told by the women in his life; not just one woman. but thirty different characters he encounters during his life- some family and close friends or others he meets through circumstance and his insatiable curiosity to understand the human condition.
Elif Shafak takes us on a journey through the life of Gustave Flaubert- from his turbulent childhood living in a hospital and close to a morgue where as a boy he connected to the world around by observing life through a very different lens of understanding; onto teenage years in a boarding school where his sense of isolation or disconnection became an inner strength; his adult life of exploring Paris and travels to Egypt, Turkey and Beirut experiencing and witnessing different lives and his years as an author developing and building his craft drawing upon the events and encounters he had made especially in relation to women. and people who are hidden beneath the veneer of bourgeois life.
" He despises 'the champions of law and order' with their claims of moral superiority. As far as he is concerned, the outsider is more genuine and much more lovable than. the so-called 'respectable citizens'.
The stories of his life are full of beautiful detailed observations capturing the inner thoughts of all around Flaubert and the author's own personal challenges and reflections. Elif Shafak research weaves wonderful descriptions of the world in which Flaubert exists and observes. Chapters are often titled using a colour palette of hues, tints and shades that highlight the way in which Flaubert observed the world - the small details that he relished and from within his own personal health.
This isn't just a fictional biography but something much more intense and important. This is a recognition and plea to all of us to cherish the world of literature; the art of the writer; the need for books ; the power of the written word; the power of being different and not just accepting the world us. In a world where AI is hijacking the works of others and diminishing the capacity to question, be imaginative or just dive into book, this novel sounds the alarm of what we could lose if we don't let individualism flourish in fictional writing.
Flaubert at one point says to his niece, " Do not read, a children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, my dear, read in order to live." In one sentence so much is encapsulated,
Elif Sahfak is the consummate novelist and this is a wonderful novel. The stylistic device of moving between perspectives ( with small vignettes of a character's life brought to mind the earlier works of Garcia Marquez and Allende. Hypnotic, beguiling and powerful.
One of my favourite books of 2026 without a doubt - storytelling that goes beyond superlatives.
Highly recommend .
Thank you to Viking Books/penguin random House and net galley for the advance copy for an honest and unbiased review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Quite a different style of novel from Elif. I was lucky enough to get accepted the ARC. This novel follows Flaubert author of Madame Bovary. I have not read this so I am went in blind. The story is narrated through the women who have been a part of his life.
The book is set out in different sections- exploring Flauberts life from childhood up until he dies. A lot of the people he encounters through his journey have somehow been associated with the Hotel-Dieu in some form or another.
Flaubert is quite a troubled soul - he has been called many things useless, weird, amongst other names. He is a unique boy and wants to become a writer and not follow in the family’s path of being a doctor. He sees the world in a different way which is what makes him a unique character.
This was hard to get into initially but obviously being Elifs book I didn’t want to DNF this. There was a lot going on and as Elif has stated this book is based on a fictional account of Flauberts life with her own touch on it. I have read 5 of her books so far and this is my least favourite so far. That being said - this was a well researched book, unique and interesting. I did enjoy reading the different perspectives and overall how Elif has written this from a woman’s perspective. She has done it in such a beautiful way that makes you want to read along. Not the type of story I would reach for but I am glad I did read it.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3 stars / DNF at 50% ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The writing is absolutely beautiful and thoughtful and I will definitely pick up another of Elif Shafak’s books in the future but this book wasn’t for me.
In One Brief Moment All Eternity travels through the fictionalised life of Gustave Flaubert, the author of Madame Bovary, through the perspectives of different women he encounters throughout his life.
I loved the women’s perspectives, some significant presences through his life like his mother and his nursemaid, some brief encounters such as the dead woman his father is dissecting and some more unusual like the opium. These segments were fascinating and clever; I looked forward to each new point of view. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find myself to be interested or care about Gustave (I think best described as insufferable at times) and found myself quite bored. It’s a slow-paced and long book, over 600 pages, but I think it works for an in-depth exploration of Flaubert’s life.
While this book wasn’t for me, it is a gorgeous book and definitely left me thinking about love, creativity and how one takes in the world.
This book would work well for those who want a slow-paced philosophical read, like books with many POVs and who have read and loved Madame Bovary.
Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin and Hamish Hamilton for this ARC.
The writing is absolutely beautiful and thoughtful and I will definitely pick up another of Elif Shafak’s books in the future but this book wasn’t for me.
In One Brief Moment All Eternity travels through the fictionalised life of Gustave Flaubert, the author of Madame Bovary, through the perspectives of different women he encounters throughout his life.
I loved the women’s perspectives, some significant presences through his life like his mother and his nursemaid, some brief encounters such as the dead woman his father is dissecting and some more unusual like the opium. These segments were fascinating and clever; I looked forward to each new point of view. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find myself to be interested or care about Gustave (I think best described as insufferable at times) and found myself quite bored. It’s a slow-paced and long book, over 600 pages, but I think it works for an in-depth exploration of Flaubert’s life.
While this book wasn’t for me, it is a gorgeous book and definitely left me thinking about love, creativity and how one takes in the world.
This book would work well for those who want a slow-paced philosophical read, like books with many POVs and who have read and loved Madame Bovary.
Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin and Hamish Hamilton for this ARC.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
So, first let me say that Elif Shafak is a masterful storyteller, that her prose is lyrical at times and that she is very creative and intricate in her stories. That said, there was a LOT going on here -- maybe too much. The novel is a novelized biography of Gustave Flaubert and the story centers on his creation of the classic Madame Bovary and its titular character. So, if you are not a huge fan of that book, I do not feel you will fully enjoy or appreciate this (longish) one. The book is set up in sections to explore the phases of Flaubert's life through the insights/stories/reflections of 30 (!) feminine characters—but not all are people, some are animals, cities, spirits, etc. Each chapter is titled to reflect a color that represents an object/scene/experience. Some very interesting insights -- Flaubert was epileptic, he came from a family of doctors, his work was translated by Karl Marx's daughter, he was fascinated by Egypt, he was tried for indecency in France for the carriage ride scene in Madame Bovary -- and some beautiful reflections on the power and inspiration of literature/storytelling, grief, etc. This is a stingy 3 star read -- I probably would give it 3-1/2 or 3-3/4.
Review of advance copy
I love a fictional biography and judging it just as that this is an excellent book, but it is much more than that. Not only do we get to see key moments in Flaubert’s life, but also overlapping telling from the female voices around him. Women who were his family, lovers, literary creations, passing acquaintances, or passing strangers, get to tell their story of Flaubert and often tell different stories.
The book acknowledges the impossibility of truly portraying the authors life by making the story work too well. characters return to tie up loose ends or we finding out about connections between seemingly unconnected individuals. Sometimes I felt that the telling of Flauberts life was being written at the end when it could be made to make sense or some stories rewritten by him for more impact. This is always done with a nod, and knowing smile to the reader, and added a lot to my enjoyment. This is set to be one of my favorite books I read this year.
The book acknowledges the impossibility of truly portraying the authors life by making the story work too well. characters return to tie up loose ends or we finding out about connections between seemingly unconnected individuals. Sometimes I felt that the telling of Flauberts life was being written at the end when it could be made to make sense or some stories rewritten by him for more impact. This is always done with a nod, and knowing smile to the reader, and added a lot to my enjoyment. This is set to be one of my favorite books I read this year.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thanks to Knopf and Netgalley for an eARC of In One Brief Moment All Eternity by Elif Shafak. My introduction to Shafak was her previous novel, There Are Rivers In The Sky, which I absolutely loved. Both novels are historical literary fiction epics that follow characters over a length of time that glides by. In One Brief Moment All Eternity focuses on Gustave Flaubert and the creation of Madame Bovary, specifically on how the real and fictional women surrounding Flaubert influenced him. I love how the novel feels like an intimate coming of age novel from Flaubert's perspective, however on top of that we also get additional commentary from the women mentioned concerning these pivtal moments in Flaubert's life. It is a mesmerizing meditation on art and how impactful it can be in tough times.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I am a big fan of Elif Shafak's last book (There are Rivers in the Sky), but this one did not hit the same. I wanted to DNF it many times, but kept at it because of my appreciation of the last book. Finally DNFed at 85%.
There were similarities in the fact that both books dealt with nuanced historical eras (in this book, Napoleonic France and struggles therein), distant lands (Northern Africa), etc. And some of this book's subject matters were very interesting - medicinal practices of the day (cholera, syphilis), mounting political upheaval, role of women in society, etc. It was well written, seemingly well researched. And yet, I just didn't care enough about any of it, somehow.
It should be said that this is about Gustave Flaubert, who wrote Madame Bovary. If that is a favorite book of yours, this might be of more interest.
There were similarities in the fact that both books dealt with nuanced historical eras (in this book, Napoleonic France and struggles therein), distant lands (Northern Africa), etc. And some of this book's subject matters were very interesting - medicinal practices of the day (cholera, syphilis), mounting political upheaval, role of women in society, etc. It was well written, seemingly well researched. And yet, I just didn't care enough about any of it, somehow.
It should be said that this is about Gustave Flaubert, who wrote Madame Bovary. If that is a favorite book of yours, this might be of more interest.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
A cleverly written and thoughtful book about the life of Gustave Flaubert. There is the basic chronology of his life, interspersed with narratives from thirty very varying female representations. The writing style is beautiful and very easy to read. The book is however too long. Combined with the fact that I didn't really enjoy Flaubert's company, the length of the book was a definite negative. I did enjoy the narratives from the females, which inventively includes animals and even a city. These were so varied they added the interest that Flaubert's narrative seemed to lack for me. Having said that, it is a very intelligent piece of work, with themes on creativity and literature. I'm sure that many readers will enjoy this book as there's a lot to take from it.
I received a free review copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for my honest and unedited review.
I received a free review copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for my honest and unedited review.
September 7, 2026
With thanks to Penguin/ Hamish Hamilton and NetGalley for the arc.
This is quite a difficult book to review. Ostensibly this is an account of the life of Gustave Flaubert but it is told through the multiple points of view of the women (real and fictional) and items that shaped his character and writing. Shafak is always an interesting and accomplished storyteller and her writing is vivid and and compelling, really bringing the characters to life. That being said, I think it would really help the reading experience if you have at least a passing interest and rudimentary knowledge of the life and some of the works of Flaubert - I have only read Madam Bovary and struggled a little bit to maintain interest over the 608 pages of this tightly written book.
This is quite a difficult book to review. Ostensibly this is an account of the life of Gustave Flaubert but it is told through the multiple points of view of the women (real and fictional) and items that shaped his character and writing. Shafak is always an interesting and accomplished storyteller and her writing is vivid and and compelling, really bringing the characters to life. That being said, I think it would really help the reading experience if you have at least a passing interest and rudimentary knowledge of the life and some of the works of Flaubert - I have only read Madam Bovary and struggled a little bit to maintain interest over the 608 pages of this tightly written book.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
As with all Elif Shafak books the writing is superb, every word in the right place. But, for some reason, I found it difficult to get into the story and found myself doing other things instead of picking up my kindle. I did enjoy the various stories within the book and it is a very worthwhile read but I have never taken so long to read 600 pages before.
Gustave Flaubert is an interesting character and the character development of the women who influenced his life is excellent. Some of them left me wanting more.
Overall this is a good story and a very well written one, but I found it too long. Although I can't think of anything that shouldn't be there.
With grateful thanks to the publisher for an e-ARC to read and review.
Gustave Flaubert is an interesting character and the character development of the women who influenced his life is excellent. Some of them left me wanting more.
Overall this is a good story and a very well written one, but I found it too long. Although I can't think of anything that shouldn't be there.
With grateful thanks to the publisher for an e-ARC to read and review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
5.0. I have liked Ms. Shafak’s other novels, but this one really hit it out of the ballpark. A remarkable historical fiction on the French author, Gustave Flaubert, along with the turbulent times in France, woven together through the voices of various females, human and otherwise. It was not an easy read but the writing was breathtaking. Although Flaubert was clearly a troubled soul, he had a lot of interesting qualities and sensitivities to the plight of the poor, dispossessed, and those who were not of the bourgeoisie or privileged class though he himself was raised in a well to do family. A very well researched novel. Ms Shafak did an excellent job in conveying his tortured and reclusive personality while also showing his unique insights into the human condition. An extremely engaging novel. Makes me want to read Madame Bovary. Thank you to Netgalley for providing me an advance copy in exchange for an honest and candid review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I love this author. I love this subject (Gustave Flaubert). There was really no way that this could go wrong. The way that Elif tells this story showcases her superlative writing skills. Anyone can write historical fiction about real people, but this author brings something extra special to this tale. It is told through the voice of Gustave himself and then 30 women who affect his life in various ways. Some are also real people. Some are fictional. Some are abstract. Some are hinted at by Gustave's own writing. I think it's brilliant. Highly recommend.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
In One Brief Moment All Eternity by Elif Shafak is a quiet but deeply emotional story. I loved the way it looks at the passing of time and how certain moments, memories and people can stay with us long after they’re gone.
The story has a beautiful, almost dreamlike quality, and Shafak’s writing makes even the simplest moments feel meaningful. It’s not a fast-paced read, but I enjoyed taking my time with it. Thoughtful, emotional and beautifully written. A quiet book with a lot of heart.
The story has a beautiful, almost dreamlike quality, and Shafak’s writing makes even the simplest moments feel meaningful. It’s not a fast-paced read, but I enjoyed taking my time with it. Thoughtful, emotional and beautifully written. A quiet book with a lot of heart.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Oh dear I so much wanted to love this book but I just didn't. I can see why others have loved it. It is we written but I just found it....well boring if I am being honest.
It was maybe too philosophical for me. And it was very annoying in places.
I read an ARC provided bu Netgalley.co.uk and the publishers.
It was maybe too philosophical for me. And it was very annoying in places.
I read an ARC provided bu Netgalley.co.uk and the publishers.
September 12, 2026
Loved this book SO much! I love that’s it’s told from the story of women, I absolutely LOVE s feminist twist on a book! The only thing I wish I had done was read Madame Bovary before picking this up but other than that this was perfection!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
How do I rate a book 6 stars? Full review to come once I recover and get my thoughts together.
August 31, 2026
Review your follow
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
I’m calling this an Epic masterpiece because words cannot describe how beautiful the writing was …
Review of advance copy received from Indie Reviewers
As addictive as the opium in it! An immersive, clever , illuminating fable on the power of literature.
Thank you to Penguin Viking for the ARC!
Thank you to Penguin Viking for the ARC!
Want to Read
September 10, 2026Cannot wait to dive into Elif Shafak's new novel!
I would love to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc for review
I would love to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc for review
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
i love when women tell the story
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
No notes - Elif Shafak is a master 💕
September 2, 2026
Review of an advance copy received from NetGalley.
Elif Shafak is a genius. Her writing has this mystical, ethereal quality that instantly pulls me in and refuses to let go. She’s one of my favorite writers, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on her newest novel. And it was worth every second of the anticipation. I could have spent weeks lost in these pages, but instead I devoured all 600 of them in a single weekend.
In In One Brief Moment All Eternity, Shafak imagines the life of Gustave Flaubert through the women who loved him, cared for him, inspired him, and even the fictional women he brought to life on the page. At its center is Madame Bovary, but the novel reaches far beyond Emma, giving voice to the women who have often been pushed to the margins of literary history.
I knew almost nothing about Flaubert going in, and I’ve never read Madame Bovary, but that didn’t stop me from being completely fascinated. Shafak made 19th-century France feel vivid and alive, while weaving together history, creativity, memory, love, loss, and the complicated relationship between an artist and the people who become part of his work. And, of course, Madame Bovary has officially been added to my TBR.
There’s something so immersive about Shafak’s storytelling. Her prose feels both grounded and otherworldly, and she has an incredible ability to bring history and the lives of people who might otherwise have been forgotten to vivid life. Her prose is beautiful without ever feeling ornamental, and there’s something almost hypnotic about the way she moves between the real and the imagined, the past and the present.
In One Brief Moment All Eternity comes out October 15, and I have a feeling this one is going to be a huge hit. If you love historical fiction, literary reimaginings, beautiful prose, and stories that blur the line between the real and the imagined, this is one to watch for.
Elif Shafak is a genius. Her writing has this mystical, ethereal quality that instantly pulls me in and refuses to let go. She’s one of my favorite writers, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on her newest novel. And it was worth every second of the anticipation. I could have spent weeks lost in these pages, but instead I devoured all 600 of them in a single weekend.
In In One Brief Moment All Eternity, Shafak imagines the life of Gustave Flaubert through the women who loved him, cared for him, inspired him, and even the fictional women he brought to life on the page. At its center is Madame Bovary, but the novel reaches far beyond Emma, giving voice to the women who have often been pushed to the margins of literary history.
I knew almost nothing about Flaubert going in, and I’ve never read Madame Bovary, but that didn’t stop me from being completely fascinated. Shafak made 19th-century France feel vivid and alive, while weaving together history, creativity, memory, love, loss, and the complicated relationship between an artist and the people who become part of his work. And, of course, Madame Bovary has officially been added to my TBR.
There’s something so immersive about Shafak’s storytelling. Her prose feels both grounded and otherworldly, and she has an incredible ability to bring history and the lives of people who might otherwise have been forgotten to vivid life. Her prose is beautiful without ever feeling ornamental, and there’s something almost hypnotic about the way she moves between the real and the imagined, the past and the present.
In One Brief Moment All Eternity comes out October 15, and I have a feeling this one is going to be a huge hit. If you love historical fiction, literary reimaginings, beautiful prose, and stories that blur the line between the real and the imagined, this is one to watch for.
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