She is best known for her novels, which include The Bastard of Istanbul, The Forty Rules of Love, Three Daughters of Eve and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World.
Her works have prominently featured the city of Istanbul, and dealt with themes of Eastern and Western culture, roles of women in society, and human rights issues.
Certain politically challenging topics addressed in her novels, such as child abuse and the Armenian genocide, have led to legal action from authorities in Turkey[4][5] that prompted her to emigrate to the United Kingdom.
After her parents separated, Shafak returned to Ankara, Turkey, where she was raised by her mother and maternal grandmother.
[9][13] In the UK, she held the Weidenfeld Visiting Professorship in Comparative European Literature at St Anne's College, University of Oxford, for the 2017–2018 academic year,[14] where she is an honorary fellow.
[9] Her novel Three Daughters of Eve (2017), set in Istanbul and Oxford from the 1980s to the present day,[34] was chosen by London Mayor Sadiq Khan as his favourite book of the year.
[37] Following Margaret Atwood, David Mitchell and Sjon, Shafak was selected as the 2017 writer for the Future Library project.
[39] Shafak's 2019 novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, revolving around the life of an Istanbul sex worker, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
[40] In 2019, Shafak was investigated by Turkish prosecutors for addressing child abuse and sexual violence in her fiction writing.
[42] Shafak's non-fiction essays in Turkish have been collected in four books: Med-Cezir (2005),[43] Firarperest (2010),[44] Şemspare (2012)[45] and Sanma ki Yalnızsın (2017).
[61] Shafak has remarked: "Istanbul makes one comprehend, perhaps not intellectually but intuitively, that East and West are ultimately imaginary concepts, and can thereby be de-imagined and re-imagined.
"[47] The New York Times Book Review said of Shafak, "she has a particular genius for depicting backstreet Istanbul, where the myriad cultures of the Ottoman Empire are still in tangled evidence on every family tree.
"[4] In a piece she wrote for the BBC, Shafak said, "Istanbul is like a huge, colourful Matrushka – you open it and find another doll inside.
In The Washington Post, Ron Charles Wrote: "Shafak speaks in a multivalent voice that captures the roiling tides of diverse cultures.
[68] While taking part in the Free Speech Debate, she commented: "I am more interested in showing the things we have in common as fellow human beings, sharing the same planet and ultimately, the same sorrows and joys rather than adding yet another brick in the imaginary walls erected between cultures/religions/ethnicities.
"[69] Shafak has been critical of the presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, describing his tenure as leading to increased authoritarianism in Turkey.
"[50] Shafak signed an open letter in protest against Russian persecution of homosexuals and blasphemy laws before Sochi 2014.
[65][76] Shafak is married to the Turkish journalist Eyüp Can Sağlık, a former editor of the liberal newspaper Radikal, with whom she has a daughter and a son.
[78] Following the birth of her daughter in 2006, Shafak suffered from postnatal depression, a period she addressed in her memoir Black Milk.