The Black Book
The Black Book
Author: Orhan Pamuk
Desc: A New Translation and Afterword by Maureen Freely Galip is a lawyer living in Istanbul. His wife the detective novel–loving Ruya has disappeared. Could she have left him for her ex-husband or Celâl a popular newspaper columnist? But Celâl too seems to have vanished. As Galip investigates he finds himself assuming the enviable Celâl's identity wearing his clothes answering his phone calls even writing his columns. Galip pursues every conceivable clue but the nature of the mystery keeps changing and when he receives a death threat he begins to fear the worst. With its cascade of beguiling stories about Istanbul The Black Book is a brilliantly unconventional mystery and a provocative meditation on identity. For Turkish literary readers it is the cherished cult novel in which Orhan Pamuk found his original voice but it has largely been neglected by English-language readers. Now in Maureen Freely’s beautiful new translation they too may encounter all its riches.