Wellcome Collection How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division: The powerful, pocket-sized manifesto

Having read Elif Shafak's '10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World' (my book of the year) and having seen her Guardian interview, I had high hopes of this short book. I was not disappointed. Disillusionment and bewilderment may be widespread, but Elif Shafak sets out to counteract the anxiety, anger and apathy which society experiences. The pandemic will lead to a changed world, but Elif Shafak points out that we have the tools to build societies anew. This is a book which will not go on my bookshelf: I will keep it to hand, re-reading it regularly, and taking reassurance from it.

Book was very short, i read it in one session. It didn't say anything i didn't already know or was aware of, and it certainly didn't provide the solution it promised in it's title.It certainly spelled out what is wrong with our current situation as regards the masses being disillusioned/angry and increasingly polarised and intolerant towards anybody different to themselves but unless you count " be more open to others" as the solution, this isn't it.

This is an important book that challenges our way of thinking just as the pandemic brings us to a crossroads, a threshold, where change for the better is possible if enough of us work towards that end. Humaine and thought-provoking, this [short] book challenges established boundaries between race, nationality and politics, daring us to imagine a future of non-polarised acceptance. I can't recommend her words of wisdom highly enough; everyone should read this book.

Hopeful, powerful, honest and convincing. This is the length that Ece Temelkuran should have stuck to (in 'How To Lose a Country'). Unlike Temelkuran, Shafak sticks to 'we'. Rather than vituperating, Shafak's book speaks from inside the renewed society it wishes to see instead of what is round us. It comes from the Left but it does not subvert itself by spitting at the Right. Instead, it calls for 'humanism over tribalism' (p.90). 'If wanting to be heard is one side of the coin, the other side is being willing to listen' (p.15). The author has put herself in the position of her readers and spoken to them in a thoughtful, supple way.

I liked this book but was also disappointed by it. The author's take on the world we are living in is close to my own, which is comforting. However, I was hoping for more insight in to 'how to stay sane' in the context of the world described. It is short - I read it in just over an hour. It really doesn't 'delve in to' the power of stories to bring us together, as the blurb suggests. Only the last couple of pages were more what I had expected from the book, but still not much by way of delving in. Perhaps a sequel one day?