Elif Shafak on doubt, depression and a novel about Flaubert
Elif Shafak doubted whether stories still had value in chaotic times. She wrote a novel about Gustave Flaubert to work through the question.
In an interview titled ‘Is there any value in writing a story in a time of chaos?’ and published on 17 October 2026, the 54-year-old novelist talks about a creative crisis, depression and finishing that book, In One Brief Moment All Eternity, a fictionalised life of the French writer The Guardian. Doubt came first. Writing followed.
Shafak has published about 20 books in more than 20 years, including 14 novels. Her work has been translated into 58 languages. Her 2017 TED Talk had been viewed more than 6.4 million times as of October 2026. That reach is wide.
Her previous novel, There Are Rivers in the Sky, follows a single raindrop from ancient Nineveh to the River Tigris in 2018. It was one of the UK’s bestselling literary novels in 2025. Two earlier novels reached major shortlists, meaning a place among the final contenders. The Island of Missing Trees was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize in 2022, the annual UK award for fiction by women, and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2019, the UK prize that narrows the year’s novels to a final list.
She has lived in west London with her husband and two children for the past 18 years. She described herself as an Istanbulite, a European by birth and by choice, a Londoner, a global soul, a world citizen, a nomad and an itinerant storyteller. In the interview she connects that mobile identity to a nomadic childhood.
In December 2025 she was elected president of the Royal Society of Literature, the UK charity that supports writers. She replaced Bernardine Evaristo. The presidency is elected from the Fellowship, the organisation’s voted-in body of writers, and serves a term of four years Royal Society of Literature. Shafak was elected a Fellow herself in 2019 and has been chosen as one of the BBC’s 100 most inspiring and influential women.
The Guardian interview also covers harder ground. Shafak discusses being targeted by the Turkish government. She places that pressure alongside personal strain. She says she had to overcome depression to write the new novel.
What makes this stand out for readers is the sequence. A writer known for large, heavily researched novels stopped. She questioned the point of fiction. Then she used another writer’s life to find a way back to work.
Her official website lists In One Brief Moment All Eternity with the date 15.10.2026, after There Are Rivers in the Sky with the date 08.08.2024 and The Island of Missing Trees with the date 05.08.2021. The dates map a steady publishing rhythm. The interview describes what it took to keep it going.
