The Forty Rules of Love
Noël Staples reviews a moving story set against the background of Sufism
The Forty Rules of Love is a fictionalised account of the encounter in the year 1244 between the Dervish, Shams of Tabriz, and the Turkish theologian Jalaluddin Rumi in Konya. The account is woven around the story of Ella Rubinstein, wife of David, a successful Massachusetts dentist, who comes to realise she is unfulfilled and unloved in her marriage and that she has been distracting herself over the years by being something of a ‘Stepford wife’, house-proud, devoting much time to creating beautiful and varied meals. Meanwhile David, unknown to Ella, is unfaithful.
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