"Stories can build bridges." – Elif Shafak

Elif Shafak's novels cross borders—geographical, historical, and emotional—bringing readers into conversation with cultures both familiar and foreign. But who is the woman behind the stories?

In Between Two Worlds, Buraq—the biographer of Kafka and Hermann Hesse—traces Shafak's journey from a childhood between continents to her rise as an internationally celebrated author and public intellectual.

Exploring her struggles and triumphs, her literary innovations, and her role as a fearless voice for human rights, this biography offers an intimate portrait of a writer who defies easy categorisation.

Part life story, part literary exploration, this is the definitive guide to understanding Elif Shafak's art, her politics, and her vision for a more connected world.

Biographer Buraq— known for his portraits of Kafka and Hermann Hesse—traces Shafak's journey as a novelist, essayist, and public intellectual, revealing how her stories bridge cultures, challenge stereotypes, and give voice to the complexities of identity in the 21st century.