Briefly Noted

Rumi’s Secret, by Brad Gooch (Harper). Rumi, the great Persian poet, was a religious scholar in Anatolia when, in 1244, he encountered a man named Shams who recognized him as “a poet and a mystic, not a gatekeeper for rules.” Their friendship transformed Rumi’s life, and transports this biography into an exquisite, joyous realm. Shams, gruff and guileless, badgered Rumi into risking a more vulnerable approach to the concealed and inexpressible—that is, the essence of God and of love. Gooch narrates their friendship as a love story gone awry: Rumi releases his most uninhibited poetic self only after Shams disappears. Thankfully, more nurturing, less abrasive friendships followed, allowing Rumi to compose the spiritually pantheistic, enigmatic, and witty work for which he is famous.