The Turkish author, born in 1952 and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006, paints an elegiac picture in which he compares Istanbul today with how he remembers it from his childhood/youth and from stories of when it was the capital of the extensive Ottoman Empire. Although mournful and, as I found, better read interspersed with lighter stuff, Pamuk's memorable and moving account is beautifully written and repays careful reading.
(Jeremy Swann - bwl 42 October 2007 ) |
