As soon as I started reading How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division by Elif Shafak, I felt like I was sitting in a lecture room, awaiting what would be the most wonderful guest lecture. It felt like I had stepped into a space that was intimate and intellectual, friendly yet focus on educating the minds of those rattled by the direction of global unease and uncertainty. It felt right, like I had plucked it off my shelf at the perfect time, so I sat down and started reading it, and I felt my heart and my head burst.

Ours is the age of contagious anxiety. We feel overwhelmed by the events around us, by injustice, by suffering, by an endless feeling of crisis. So, how can we nurture the parts of ourselves that hope, trust and believe in something better? And how can we stay sane in this age of division? In this powerful, uplifting plea for conscious optimism, Booker Prize-nominated novelist and activist Elif Shafak draws on her own memories and delves into the power of stories to bring us together. In the process, she reveals how listening to each other can nurture democracy, empathy and our faith in a kinder and wiser future.

I love the structure of this novel, and I would not be surprised if I hit the nail on the head earlier and found out that this is, more or less, the lecture notes Elif Shafak has created for a presentation many years ago. This novel was published in 2020, amid the chaotic boom of TikTok’s popularity as a platform and the social isolation of the COVID lockdowns. I would be immensely interested to see how different this would be, or at least the new points brought up in this discussion, in 2026 given all the global events that have occurred since. The structure is so smooth and lends itself so well to linear storytelling, but it isn’t so overwhelmingly academic that it turns off readers more interested in fiction. It feels more creative nonfiction than academic, but the nonfiction feel is solid throughout. It is grounded in observation, published literature, and common sense.

There is one sentence that struck home with me, not just in how clearly it spoke to my soul, but also in how simple yet significant its message is: Stories bring us together, untold stories keep us apart. It may seem so simple, but think about it for a bit longer. This nine-word sentence speaks volumes in current social and political climates, it has been true throughout history and continues to be something that is fought for across the globe in one way or another. It is also something that is weaponised so much, and without people truly realising what is happening. I won’t go into too much detail as it is covered beautifully in the short 90 pages of this book (all the more reason to pick it up), but it is something that I have been thinking about with my PhD research.

Stories are what united people, what brings us together as human beings on this same earth, not just with those alive but those who have passed. Stories are how we shape the world, how we learn and grow, how we share our experiences, our cultures and histories and teachings. Stories transcend tribes, ethnicities, language, and all social restrictions. This is also why that second part of the sentence is so important. Without stories, especially those from people different to ourselves, we continue to be separated. We only see what we are taught to see. It takes other opinions, experiences, histories, and teachings to see our stories for what they are – one viewpoint among a multitude.

I highly recommend How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division as a bit of nonfiction reading, whether you are new to the genre and what something small to start you off, or if you are an avid nonfiction reader and have yet to pick this up. Similarly, if you are a young adult navigating the world right now, or you know someone who would really benefit from someone’s guiding insight on topics that are big and scary, this is a perfect pick. It is succinct, emotive, well-rounded, and provides so much to think about.