 Her second novel, "Şehrin Aynaları" ("Mirrors of the City"), tells the story of a family of Spanish conversos, by bringing together Jewish and Islamic mysticism against a historical setting of seventeenth-century Mediterranean.Shafak greatly increased her readership with her novel "Mahrem" ("The Gaze") which earned her the "Best Novel" – Turkish Writers' Union Prize in 2000.Her following book, "Bit Palas" ("The Flea Palace", 2002), was shortlisted for Independent Best Foreign Fiction in 2005.