she shattered the silence over the armenian genocide in turkey raged against gender violence lifted the veil on child abuse and relentlessly challenged the turkish establishment that in her own words embodies populist nationalismnot surprising then that elif shafak the prolific author of 17 books including 11 novels believes that storytelling is about swimming against the tide of the timesfor the 47yearold turkishbritish writer whose latest novel 10 minutes 38 seconds in this strange world was shortlisted for the booker prize fiction is essentially a manifestation of calm resistancefiction brings the periphery to the centre makes the invisible visible the unheard a little bit more heard it helps us to understand that there is no us versus them there is no other shafak told in a wideranging email interview on her latest novel the art of storytelling the sense of belonging friendship and solidaritythe art of storytelling is about swimming against the tide of the times in this sense fiction is and has always been a manifestation of calm resistance i like that combination very much peacefulness and rebelliousness side by side said the londonbased shafakher new book is based on the premise that human brain can function for as long as 10 minutes and 38 seconds after death and unravelling what possibly goes on in the mind in those final moments is her prostitute protagonist tequila leilaleila has been deemed a fallen woman by the culture the courts the police and her own family and through her story shafak exposes the deeply rooted hypocrisy in istanbul particularly on issues of gender and sexualitythe writer said people were simply in denial of the fact that istanbul had become a major crossroad for sex trafficking in the last decadesthe society loves to condemn what they see as fallen women but never wants to admit its own role in destroying individuals dreams and hopes she saidwriting about politics is not easy shafak who moved to london in 2013 admittedin 2006 the author was put on trial and eventually acquitted by the government of turkey for insulting turkishness because a character in her book bastard of istanbul described the mass killing of armenians in turkey during the first world war as a genocideshe said her lawyer in turkey had to defend not just her but also her armenian fictional characters in the courtroombut shafak is not one to cowerbeing apolitical or nonpolitical was not a luxury writers could afford particularly those coming from wounded democracies she saidwe cannot say i am only going to write my stories i dont want to know whats happening outside my window if a lot is happening outside the window you have to go and look if you see you have to speak up she saidshe has repeatedly called out the turkish government on its patriarchal laws that systematically discriminate against women and its ministry of religious affairs which stigmatizes and targets lgbt in their sermonsthe turkish government should stop trying to pass despicable laws that offer