Elif Shafak’s new novel grew from depression and doubts about writing’s value
Elif Shafak says her new novel grew from a personal struggle with depression and anxiety, alongside doubts about whether writing has value amid war, climate change and technological upheaval. In One Brief Moment All Eternity explores those questions through a fictionalised life of Gustave Flaubert, whose later literary stature contrasts with the loneliness and rejection he experienced.
Shafak, 54, has published 14 novels and is president of the Royal Society of Literature; her work has reached readers across countries and generations. The article links her interest in Flaubert to people who feel misunderstood, and notes that she sees the nineteenth century as another period of upheaval that can illuminate the present. The article excerpt ends before giving further details of that comparison.
- Shafak’s new novel centres on Flaubert and the value of creativity in crisis.
- Personal depression and anxiety helped shape the book.
- She connects today’s upheaval with uncertainty in the nineteenth century.
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Originally published by The Guardian as “‘Is there any value in writing a story in a time of chaos?’: novelist Elif Shafak on her creative crisis”.