Turkish author Elif Shafak talks about the relationship of her government to humour, the problematic deal for the refugees and the responsibility of European populists for the situation in Turkey.
She speaks softly, polite and thoughtful. Even so, each of her words are being heard loud and clear: Many of her 14 books have been bestsellers and many were translated in dozens of languages. Her most recent book was “The architect’s apprentice”, Penguin, 2015. The voice of the 44-year old Turkish intellectual carries considerate weight in social media, too. She has 1,7 million Twitter follower. Shafak lives in Istanbul and London, where she met profil in a coffeeshop in Marylebone for an interview.