A fictionalised account of the 12th-century Islamic theologian-poet Rumi and his relationship with the Sufi mystic Shams of Tabriz may not have immense popular appeal. Shafak has written exactly this, called it Sweet Blasphemy and wrapped it up inside a more digestible outer layer: like a sweet pastry with a very chewy filling. Ella, "a nonpractising Jew and an aspiring vegetarian", is hitting 40 and has done well to get a job with a literary agency after many years as a housewife. We may suspect a convenient plot device when the very first book she is asked to read is the said Sweet Blasphemy, wherein Shams's "forty rules of love" (love of God, that is) are carefully set out. This is didacticism thinly disguised as fiction. The chapters about Ella read like a case study in a popular psychology book ("she was satisfied to be a stay-at-home mom and grateful that she and her husband could afford it"), while the Sufi doctrine of living in the moment and moving ever closer to God may possibly appeal to those in search of meaning in life. It's Eat, Pray, Love plus 37 more imperatives.