A review by itsallaboutbooksandmacarons
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak

5.0

Reading this was hard. The way it handled death didn’t feel distant or symbolic—it felt close. Heavy. Like it reached into all the quiet places you usually don’t look. But it wasn’t just about grief. It was about life too, and the way people find each other, even in the middle of all that pain.

The connections in this book felt so real—built through moments that were small, honest, and full of meaning. That made it even more heartbreaking when they ended. It’s tragic not just because people are lost, but because something beautiful existed at all—and then had to be let go.

It didn’t feel hopeless. Just deeply human. The kind of story that reminds you how fragile everything is, and how much it matters anyway.