10 minutes and 38 seconds in this strange world

Read this if you want literary fiction with a pulse: a murder story that is really a story about friendship, memory and the people cities decide not to see. Shafak gives a sex worker the interior life that her society denied her, and builds a found family worth rooting for. It suits readers who like bold structure, sensory writing, and endings that ache a little.

1. 1

   Act 1

   Ten Minutes of Salt, Stew and Cardamom

   Istanbul, 1990. Tequila Leila, a sex worker, has been murdered and her body is left in a metal rubbish bin on the outskirts of the city. Her brain has ten minutes and thirty-eight seconds left, and in that strange window she is more awake than she has ever been. Leila's first memory is of salt: the taste of the salt her mother, Binnaz, would rub on her gums as a baby in Van, a tradition meant to ward off evil. She recalls the feel of her mother's calloused hands and the scent of her skin. Leila remembers the taste of spiced goat stew, sacrificed by her father, Haroun, to celebrate the long-awaited birth of a son. The family gathers in their home in Van, and the air is thick with the smell of cooking meat and the sound of her father's pride. Leila recalls the sight of bubbling vats of lemon and sugar which the women in Van use to make a sticky paste for waxing their legs, a ritual performed while the men attend mosque. She watches her mother and aunts laughing and gossiping as they work, the sweet scent filling the room. Leila remembers the scent of cardamom coffee she shares with a handsome student named Sinan in the brothel where she works in Istanbul. They sit in a small, dimly lit room, and he tells her about his dreams of becoming a filmmaker, making her feel seen for the first time in years. Leila recalls the touch of a silk scarf given to her by her aunt, who whispers that it belonged to a sultan's concubine. The scarf is deep purple, and Leila treasures it as a child in Van, hiding it under her pillow and dreaming of a life beyond her small town. Leila remembers the sound of her father's voice as he reads from the Quran during her brother's circumcision ceremony. She is seven years old, standing in the courtyard of their home, and feels a mix of jealousy and confusion as all attention turns to her brother. Leila recalls the first time she sees Istanbul, at age twelve, when her family moves there. The city overwhelms her with its noise, crowds, and the smell of the sea, so different from the quiet streets of Van. She feels both excitement and a deep sense of loss. Leila remembers being molested by her uncle, a respected tailor in Istanbul, in his shop when she is thirteen. The memory is triggered by the feel of rough fabric against her skin, and she recalls the shame and silence that followed, as her family never spoke of it. Leila recalls running away from home at sixteen after her father discovers she has been seeing a boy. He beats her with a belt, and she flees into the streets of Istanbul, ending up in the red-light district where she meets a woman named Bitter Ma, who takes her in.

2. 2

   Act 2

   The Family She Chose

   The last half-minute keeps circling the people who mattered. Leila remembers the first time she meets her friend Nalan, a transgender woman, in a park in Istanbul. Nalan is being harassed by a group of men, and Leila intervenes, throwing stones at them. They escape together, and Nalan becomes one of Leila's closest friends. Leila recalls the day she meets her friend Sinan again, years after their first coffee, when he comes to the brothel to film a documentary. He is now a struggling filmmaker, and their reunion is bittersweet, as he sees her life with pity, but she refuses to be a victim in his story. Leila remembers her friend Jameelah, a Somali woman who works as a cleaner and lives in a cramped apartment filled with birds. Jameelah tells Leila that the birds are the souls of the dead, and she cares for them with a tenderness that Leila finds both strange and beautiful. In her final memory, Leila sees her five friends—Nalan, Sinan, Jameelah, Zaynab122, and Humeyra—gathered around her body in the rubbish bin. She feels a surge of love for them, knowing they are the family she chose, and then her consciousness fades into darkness.

3. 3

   Act 3

   A Body Nobody Wants

   Leila's body is taken to the morgue, where it is labeled as an unidentified prostitute. Her friends, unaware of her death, begin to search for her, starting with Nalan, who goes to the brothel and learns from Bitter Ma that Leila has been missing for two days. Nalan, Sinan, Jameelah, Zaynab122, and Humeyra gather at a teahouse in Istanbul to plan their search. They are a motley group: Nalan is a trans activist, Sinan a filmmaker, Jameelah a cleaner, Zaynab122 a dwarf and brothel worker, and Humeyra a singer. They decide to check hospitals and morgues. At the morgue, the friends identify Leila's body. The attendant is dismissive, but Nalan insists on seeing her, and they are shocked by the bruises and cuts on her face. They learn she was murdered by a client, but the police have no interest in investigating the death of a prostitute. The friends decide to give Leila a proper burial, but they face obstacles: the imam refuses to perform the rites for a prostitute, and the cemetery won't accept her. They pool their money to buy a plot in a graveyard on the outskirts of Istanbul, but they need a body to bury. The friends steal Leila's body from the morgue, with Zaynab122 using her small size to sneak in and unlock the door. They wrap her in a sheet and carry her through the streets of Istanbul at night, dodging police patrols and stray dogs.

4. 4

   Act 4

   The Burial and What Remains

   The group drives Leila's body to the cemetery in a borrowed van, with Humeyra singing a lament she composed for Leila. The song is a mix of Turkish and Arabic, and it speaks of a woman who was loved by the outcasts. The others join in, their voices filling the van. At the cemetery, the friends dig a grave under the cover of darkness. Sinan says a few words, recalling how Leila once told him, 'In this strange world, we are all just ten minutes and thirty-eight seconds away from being forgotten.' They lower her body into the ground and cover it with earth. After the burial, the friends return to their lives, but they are changed. Nalan continues her activism, Sinan finishes his documentary about Leila, Jameelah releases her birds, Zaynab122 leaves the brothel, and Humeyra records the lament. They carry Leila's memory with them. The novel closes with a reflection on Istanbul itself, a city that holds the stories of the forgotten. Leila's spirit is imagined as part of the city's fabric, in the sound of the call to prayer, the smell of the sea, and the laughter of women in hidden courtyards.

• TTequila LeilaA sex worker from Van, murdered in 1990 and left in a rubbish bin. In her dying minutes she reclaims every memory the world tried to erase, and in life she collected a family of outcasts who refuse to let her be forgotten.
• NNalanA transgender woman and trans activist whom Leila defended with thrown stones in a park. She leads the search for Leila and insists on identifying her body when the morgue attendant wants to look away.
• SSinanA handsome student who shared cardamom coffee with Leila in the brothel and dreamed of filmmaking. He returns years later to film a documentary, and at the graveside he speaks the line about being ten minutes and thirty-eight seconds from being forgotten.
• JJameelahA Somali woman who works as a cleaner and keeps a cramped apartment full of birds she believes are the souls of the dead. After the burial, she releases them.
• ZZaynab122A dwarf who works in the brothel and becomes the friends' unlikely key—her small size lets her sneak into the morgue and unlock the door. Afterward she leaves the brothel for good.
• HHumeyraA singer among the five friends. She composes a lament in Turkish and Arabic for Leila's van ride to the cemetery and later records it.
• BBitter MaThe woman who took sixteen-year-old Leila in when she fled to Istanbul's red-light district. Years later she is the one who tells Nalan that Leila has been missing for two days.
• HHaroun and BinnazLeila's parents in Van: a father who celebrates the birth of a son with sacrificed goat stew and beats his daughter with a belt, a mother who rubbed salt on baby Leila's gums to ward off evil.

Salt

The first memory: Binnaz rubbing salt on baby Leila's gums in Van to ward off evil. It stands for a mother's protection and the earliest, most elemental layer of the self—the taste that survives everything that comes after.

The purple silk scarf

A gift from an aunt, said to have belonged to a sultan's concubine, hidden under a child's pillow in Van. It carries the dream of a life beyond a small town—and, in its concubine's history, a dark hint of the fate that awaits Leila.

Jameelah's birds

Birds kept in a cramped apartment, believed to be the souls of the dead, tended with strange tenderness. When Jameelah releases them after the burial, the gesture mirrors Leila's own release—her soul freed from the body the city tried to discard.

The rubbish bin

A metal bin on the outskirts of Istanbul holds Leila's murdered body—and, in her final vision, all five friends gathered around it. It is what the city thinks of her, transformed into the place where her chosen family assembles.

The ending works on two levels at once. On the surface it is a small victory: five outcasts outwit morgue, imam and cemetery to bury their friend with their own hands, and each is changed by it—Nalan's activism, Sinan's finished documentary, Jameelah's freed birds, Zaynab122 leaving the brothel, Humeyra's recorded lament. But the final movement goes further, imagining Leila's spirit woven into Istanbul itself: the call to prayer, the smell of the sea, the laughter of women in hidden courtyards. One reading is consoling—she is not forgotten, she is everywhere. A darker reading is that only in death, dissolved into metaphor, can a woman like Leila finally belong to the city that discarded her. The title's countdown sharpens both readings: if we are all ten minutes and thirty-eight seconds from being forgotten, then remembering is not a given but a choice, made by the living, one act at a time.

1. 1.The novel gives Leila ten minutes and thirty-eight seconds of post-mortem consciousness. Is this a mystical device, a neurological conceit, or a narrative argument that memory outlives official record—and does the structure earn its gimmick?

Readers who want literary fiction with real stakes—murder, friendship, dignity—and a structure as bold as its subject. Also anyone drawn to Istanbul, or to stories about the people cities would rather not count.

FAQ