? Brew some tea and grab your journal. In How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division, Turkish-British novelist, essayist, and activist Elif Shafak taps into our deepest fears when faced with uncertainty. Released in August 2020 and inspired by the Covid-19 outbreak and the quarantine stage that followed, this essay — also available as an audiobook — remains resonant in 2025.

“Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the humans’ hierarchies?” Shafak, a seasoned storyteller, proves an excellent narrator. Commanding yet maternal, Shafak speaks with the confidence of an expert, yet also with the uncertainty of a human navigating life for the very first time. Throughout the audiobook’s 93-minute runtime and the paperback’s 96 pages, she dissects the global political scene, identifying where and how the average individual fits within it. Shafak writes of an everchanging world that is — to most — headed to the worse.

How, in an age where humans are more connected than ever, are we so focused on our differences? There’s a system that’s broken, and a power gap that is widening. Shafak draws from both past and present to predict — and warn of — the future. She expertly untangles societies, governments, and — perhaps surprisingly, given this was released in 2020 — the rise of artificial intelligence, what that holds for our future, and how to navigate the feeling of helplessness that arises from the realisation of its dangers.

How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division is an emotional foray into the deepest crevices of the human mind, in which Shafak relays her own experiences in life, ones she extends to the rest of the populace, supported by various studies. It’s a personal narrative, yet one that is undoubtedly relatable — and required. The essay forces the reader to examine the concepts we have so long accepted as givens, and encourages them to restructure their thought processes.

What are we if we are voiceless? Agency and the importance of storytelling are pivotal themes that are present in How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division. Shafak argues that our futures are solely dependent on us, and that passive optimism is “simply no more.” There is a never-ending worry about the state of the world, one she denotes a “contagious anxiety,” and this essay exists to assuage it.

WHERE TO FIND IT- You can listen to How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division on Audible, order the paperback edition from The Bookspot, and find it in Arabic at Diwan.

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