There's been huge anticipation for this novel, the latest from the incredible writer Elif Shafak. Here she imagines the life of Gustav Flaubert, author of 'Madame Bovary', through the women he knew.

I was eager to read it though was rather daunted when I saw how big it was - 587 pages! I had to have a couple of run ups before diving in.

But I loved this book! Once I'd committed to reading it, my, I didn't want to stop and had to pace myself to get other things done.

There are some amazing statements about the life of a writer, and there's a fabulous author's note at the back of the book where Shafak explains how and why she wrote this novel. She describes the enduring nature of literature - how it remains and sustains us through war, injustice and political upheaval, just as it did for Flaubert.

'Madame Bovary' had great resonance for Shafak, she says, as she struggled to understand the chaos of life today, and that is why she decided to revisit Flaubert's life and work through this novel. And it's just a wonderful read.

Woven throughout the chapters giving a conventional account of Flaubert's life in his relationships, his hopes and dreams, struggles and disappointments, there are passages written by the women he meets and who influence him - the nursemaid, a dancer, an innkeeper, his mistress. There are also imagined voices for opium and syphilis!

Spanning decades, the story covers nineteenth-century Paris during the Revolution, and Flaubert's experiences of Istanbul, Cairo, Palestine and Beirut. It is wonderfully evocative of people and place and I was sorry to turn the last page.