10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World

by

Elif Shafak

The Lady Pharmacist Character Analysis

The Lady Pharmacist is Sabotage Sinan’s mother. A secular, modern woman of science and a widow yet to remarry, both she and her son are considered outsiders in Van. Like her late husband, she believes in Turkey’s potential for sociopolitical “enlightenment,” hopeful that the country will grow gradually more progressive and modern, like the Western nations she sees as superior. Though Haroun doesn’t much care for her—nor she for him—he calls on her for help when Leila falls severely ill as a child. The Lady Pharmacist disapproves of Haroun and his family’s reluctance to join the scientific age, but she helps Leila regardless, administering both medicine and kindness. She also brings Sinan along with her, inadvertently sparking a lifelong friendship between the two children.
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The Lady Pharmacist Character Timeline in 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World

The timeline below shows where the character The Lady Pharmacist appears in 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1, Chapter 5: Four Minutes
...Binnaz exhaust all their homemade remedies and superstitions with no improvement, Haroun reluctantly calls the Lady Pharmacist —a modern woman of science and a vocal critic of their family’s traditional ways. A... (full context)
Part 1, Chapter 6: Sinan’s Story
Sinan lives with his mother in a flat above the pharmacy. His father is a Turkish soldier who died of... (full context)
Part 1, Chapter 9: Seven Minutes
...magazines, they come across a photo of a model holding a hula hoop. Sinan persuades his mother to order two, giving one to Leila, with whom he has grown very close. Leila... (full context)
...out her front door while her family convenes in the kitchen. Sinan steals money from his mother for Leila’s bus fare, and the friends share a tearful goodbye. He insists she’s safer... (full context)