BY KAREN BOSSICK

Turkish-raised writer Elif Shafak will headline the third Stories Leap Over Walls discussion hosted by the Hailey Public Library this week.

The Zoom discussion exploring culture race and our sense of home will start at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 2.

It will begin with a short TED talk by Shafak, a storyteller, political essayist and women’s rights activist. Conversation between Zoom attendees will follow.

The British-Turkish author Shafak has written 11 novels, including “10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World,” a novel about a sex worker who was murdered, her body unceremoniously dumped into a wheelie bin in Istanbul. As her brain shuts down, she recalls her life, including the family who disowned her and the friends who came to her support against a backdrop of key moments in Turkish history.

She also has written “Three Daughters of Eve,” a novel that centers on a wealthy, middle-aged housewife, her childhood in Istanbul and her time as a student at Oxford University. A founding member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, she holds a master’s degree in Gender and Women’s Studies and a Ph.D. in political science.

Growing up the daughter of a diplomat and the granddaughter of woman who read coffee grounds to see the future, she learned of the power of circles, cultural cocoons, the tendency to see a story as more than a story and the difference between identity politics and fiction.

“We’ve been encouraged by the rich conversations emerging after listening to these provocative TED Talks,” said Kristin Fletcher, the library’s adult program coordinator. “Listening to others and sharing our own personal stories has helped us gently explore those walls that may divide us.”

To attend the discussion, RSVP to Kristin.fletcher@haileypubliclibrary.org.