My Name is Red

Orhan Pamuk's most famous novel, set amid the artistic splendour and religious intrigue of sixteenth-century Istanbul, is a fantastical tale of romance and murder propelled by the philosophical puzzle at its core.

It embraces detective fiction, artistic disquisition and psychological thriller. Above all, the reader is treated to an extraordinary plangent lament for principles of craftsmanship which history has buried and which fashion does not value.

Far from being a mere "historical novel", it has unforgettable narrative drive that unites past and present, as well as the high art with popular appeal which has made Pamuk into Turkey's greatest living writer.

Orhan Pamuk, one of the world's major living novelists, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996. My Name is Red, which met with rave reviews, is the novel that first made his international reputation.

The Ottoman Sultan has commissioned the best artists in the land to create a book celebrating the glories of his realm: but he wants them to illuminate it in the European style. Because figurative art is deemed by many to be an affront to Islam, the project must be kept secret. Panic and scandal erupt when one of the chosen miniaturists disappears, along with a crucial page of the manuscript. The surviving artists - bitter rivals variously motivated by pride, greed, jealousy, faith and love - are all under suspicion of murder, and the only clue to the mystery lies in the half-finished illustrations themselves. My Name is Red reveals the clash between two views of artistic meaning and the chasm between two world civilizations. In this special edition the author includes a chronology of Islamic and Western art history to provide valuable context for his story, and has contributed a fascinating introduction throwing light on his methods, his aims and his inspiration

Orhan Pamuk

Snow is an in-depth tour of the divided, hopeful, desolate, mystifying Turkish soul. Not only an engrossing feat of tale-spinning, but essential reading for our times.

A major work ... conscience-ridden and carefully wrought, tonic in its scope, candour and humour ... In Turkey, to write with honest complexity about such matters as head scarves and religious belief takes courage.

Returning to Turkey from exile in the West, the secular poet Ka is driven by curiosity to investigate a surprising wave of suicides among religious girls forbidden by the government to wear their head scarves in school. But the epicentre of the suicides, the bleak, impoverished border city of Kars, is also home to the beautiful Ipek, a friend of Ka's youth whom he has never forgotten and whose spirited younger sister is a leader of the rebellious schoolgirls. As a fierce snowstorm descends, cutting them off from the world, violence between the military and local Islamic radicals begins to explode, and Ka finds his sympathies drawn in unexpected and dramatic directions.

Orhan Pamuk

Praise for Snow

Snow is an in-depth tour of the divided, hopeful, desolate, mystifying Turkish soul. Not only an engrossing feat of tale-spinning, but essential reading for our times.

A major work ... conscience-ridden and carefully wrought, tonic in its scope, candour and humour ... In Turkey, to write with honest complexity about such matters as head scarves and religious belief takes courage.

Books by Orhan Pamuk

Series by Orhan Pamuk

Everyman’s Library Contemporary Classics

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