Orhan Pamuk

It opens a window into the reign of Ottoman Sultan Murat III in nine snowy winter days of 1591, inviting the reader to experience the tension between East and West from a breathlessly urgent perspective.

Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born 7 June 1952; ) is a Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic, and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature.

One of Turkey's most prominent novelists, he has sold over 13 million books in 63 languages, making him the country's best-selling writer.

Pamuk's novels include Silent House, The White Castle, The Black Book, The New Life, My Name Is Red and Snow.

He is the Robert Yik-Fong Tam Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he teaches writing and comparative literature.

Pamuk was born in Istanbul, in 1952, and grew up in a wealthy but declining upper-class family, an experience he describes in passing in his novels The Black Book and Cevdet Bey and His Sons, as well as more thoroughly in his personal memoir Istanbul: Memories and the City.

Pamuk's paternal grandmother was Circassian.

He was educated at Robert College secondary school in Istanbul and studied architecture at the Istanbul Technical University, a subject related to his dream career, painting.

Pamuk started writing regularly in 1974.

He left architecture school after three years to become a full-time writer, and graduated from the Institute of Journalism at the University of Istanbul in 1976.

From ages 22 to 30, Pamuk lived with his mother, writing his first novel and attempting to find a publisher.

He describes himself as a Cultural Muslim who identifies with Islam historically and culturally while not believing in a personal connection to God.

His first novel, Karanlık ve Işık (Darkness and Light) was a co-winner of the 1979 Milliyet Press Novel Contest (Mehmet Eroğlu was the other winner).

This novel was published with the title Cevdet Bey ve Oğulları (Mr. Cevdet and His Sons) in 1982 and won the Orhan Kemal Novel Prize in 1983.

It tells the story of three generations of a wealthy Istanbul family living in Nişantaşı, the district of Istanbul where Pamuk grew up.

Pamuk won a number of critical prizes for his early work, including the 1984 Madarali Novel Prize for his second novel Sessiz Ev (Silent House) and the 1991 Prix de la Découverte Européenne for its French translation.

His historical novel Beyaz Kale (The White Castle), published in Turkish in 1985, won the 1990 Independent Award for Foreign Fiction and extended his reputation abroad.

Popular success took a bit longer, but his 1990 novel Kara Kitap (The Black Book) became one of the most controversial and popular books in Turkish literature, due to its complexity and richness.

On 19 May 1991, The New York Times Book Review wrote, "A new star has risen in the east—Orhan Pamuk."

He started experimenting with postmodern techniques in his novels, a change from his early works' strict naturalism.

In 1992, he wrote the screenplay for the movie Gizli Yüz (Secret Face), based on Kara Kitap and directed by a prominent Turkish director, Ömer Kavur.

Pamuk's fifth novel, Yeni Hayat (New Life), caused a sensation in Turkey upon its 1994 publication and became the fastest-selling book in Turkish history.

By this time, Pamuk had also become a high-profile figure in Turkey due to his support for Kurdish political rights.

In 1995, he was among a group of authors tried for writing essays that criticized Turkey's treatment of the Kurds.

Pamuk's international reputation continued to increase when he published Benim Adım Kırmızı (My Name is Red) in 1998.

In 1999, Pamuk published his book of essays Öteki Renkler (Other Colors).

My Name Is Red won the 2002 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, 2002 Premio Grinzane Cavour and 2003 International Dublin Literary Award.

The European Writers' Parliament came about as a result of a joint proposal by Pamuk and José Saramago.

Pamuk's willingness to write books about contentious historical and political events put him at risk of censure in his homeland.

In 2005, a lawyer sued him over a statement acknowledging the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

Pamuk said his intention had been to highlight issues of freedom of speech in Turkey.

The court initially declined to hear the case, but in 2011 Pamuk was ordered to pay 6,000 liras in compensation for having insulted the plaintiffs' honor.

It featured more than 600 colour photos selected from over 8,500 Pamuk took over a five-month period in late 2012 and early 2013, in what the gallery called "a period of intense creativity".

The novel blends mystery, romance, and philosophical puzzles in a setting of 16th-century Istanbul.

He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2018.

Of partial Circassian descent and born in Istanbul, Pamuk is the first Turkish Nobel laureate.

He is also the recipient of numerous other literary awards.

In 2019, the 66-year-old Nobel laureate held an exhibition of his photographs of Istanbul taken from his own balcony, "Balkon: Photos by Orhan Pamuk".

It captured the "subtle and ever-changing view of Istanbul" photographed by Pamuk from his balcony using a telephoto lens.

Curated by Gerhard Steidl, the German publisher of his photo book Balkon, the exhibition ran for three months at the Yapı Kredi Culture and Arts building on Istanbul's Istiklal Street.