Elif Shafak appears to have led many lives in a little over four decades. Born in Strasbourg, her early life was spent in Turkey with her mother and her grandmother, before her mother’s role as a diplomat took them to live in various postings overseas. She is the author of 16 books and her work has been translated into 49 languages.

We meet Elif (and a cacophony of birdsong) in London’s Holland Park to talk about her upbringing, women’s rights, global politics and what it means to belong.

This episode is part of our second podcast series, The Unknown Path, following the writer and broadcaster Laura Barton as she journeys across the country to meet six authors, actors and naturalists. Taken to places from their past and present, we learn about the various, and often unexpected, routes their lives have taken.