Istanbul: Memories and the City

Orhan Pamuk is the well-known Turkish writer, the holder of numerous national and international awards, including the Nobel Prize in Literature for “the search for the soul of his melancholic city.” Indeed, the action of nearly all the writer’s novels takes place in Istanbul—a mysterious and beautiful city that has experienced a tremendous peak and the sad twilight of decline. However, whereas in other works the city is skillfully hidden behind events, appearing merely as an appropriate backdrop, in his book “Istanbul. The City of Memories,” Pamuk makes it the main character. Telling about his childhood and youth, the writer reveals Istanbul to us as a secret worth discovering and loving.