I couldn’t possibly get back to reading and not read a book by Elif Shafak. This book is a recent works of Elif Shafak and was published in 2019.
A book about how and what happens when someone dies and the book is divided into 3 parts - The body, mind, and soul. 10 minutes are the mind which talks about 10 different times in the protagonist’s life which were a very important shaping point to what she was before she died and 5 small chapters about her 5 faithful friends who were family to her. The 38 minutes is about the body and soul and how her friends work in making sure her soul rests in peach and her body is cremated with respect and dignity. The book also touches upon lives of sex workers and how they are ill-treated and shunned by the society.
The story is Leila and how her body is found in a trash can on a street in Istanbul and how she comes to realize of it and her entire life runs by her mind from her childhood to the place she was in right now. She talks about her journey from being a child living with her father, her mother, and her father’s other wife to the point where she became a sex worker and lived her life proudly and made sure to be proud of who she is and made some friends along her way who became her family and she loved them deeply and they stood by her even when she was dead and made sure they expressed their love to her by taking care of her body in the way she would have wanted.
A real good book to understand life, hardships, friendship, love, and so much more.