My Name Is Red
by Orhan Pamuk

Orhan Pamuk recently won the Nobel prize for literature. My Name Is Red is hard to describe in 25 words or less. It's a discussion of art, Islam, love, and change all wrapped up in a Ottoman period murder mystery. A must read.

On Orhan Pamuk's My Name Is Red

Orhan Pamuk's novel My Name Is Red is that rare thing: a contemporary work that can already be thought of as one of the truly essential novels. Although the Nobel Prize, which was awarded to Pamuk last week, is given not for a single book but for a body of work, there can be little doubt that My Name Is Red stands at the centre of Pamuk's oeuvre.

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About...My Name Is Red

From one of the most important and acclaimed writers at work today, a thrilling new novel—part murder mystery, part love story—set amid the perils of religious repression in sixteenth-century Istanbul. When the Sultan commissions a great book to celebrate his royal self and his extensive dominion, he directs Enishte Effendi to assemble a cadre of the most acclaimed artists in the land. Their task: to illuminate the work in the European style. But because figurative art can be deemed an affront to Islam, this commission is a dangerous proposition indeed, and no one in the elite circle can know the full scope or nature of the project. Panic erupts when one of the chosen miniaturists disappears, and the Sultan demands answers within three days. The only clue to the mystery—or crime?—lies in the half-finished illuminations themselves. Has an avenging angel discovered the blasphemous work? Or is a jealous contender for the hand of Enishte’s ravishing daughter, the incomparable Shekure, somehow to blame?

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An Excerpt from... My Name Is Red

Chapter 1 I Am a Corpse I am nothing but a corpse now, a body at the bottom of a well. Although I drew my last breath long ago and my heart has stopped beating, no one, apart from that vile murderer, knows what's happened to me. As for that wretch, he felt for my pulse and listened for my breath to be sure I was dead, then kicked me in the midriff, carried me to the edge of the well, raised me up and dropped me below. As I fell, my head, which he had smashed with a stone, broke apart; my face, my forehead and cheeks, were crushed; my bones shattered, and my mouth filled with blood. For nearly four days I have been missing: My wife and children must be searching for me; my daughter, spent from crying, must be staring fretfully at the courtyard gate. Yes, I know they're all at the window, hoping for my return. But, are they truly waiting? I can't even be sure of that. Maybe they've gotten used to my absence-how dismal! For here, on the other side, one gets the feeling that one's former life persists. Before my birth there was infinite time, and after my death, inexhaustible time. I never thought of it before: I'd been living luminously between two eternities of darkness.

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My Name Is Red

From the Desk of...Orhan Pamuk

"My Name is Red is a novel based on classical Persian and Ottoman miniatures, The novel is full of loving descriptions of real historical miniatures. Most of them are preserved at the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul. We are presenting some of them with the permission of the museum and its director, Filiz Cagman in order to illustrate the novel itself and to give you a sense of the scope and beauty of this art from the Islamic past. I have included with each image either commentary or a related passage from the novel." --Orhan Pamuk