Orhan Pamuk

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, his work has sold over thirteen million books in sixty-three languages,making him the country’s best-selling writer.

He is the Robert Yik-Fong Tam Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he teaches writing and comparative literature. 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. My Name Is Red won the 2002 Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger, 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 Jose Saramago. In 2005, the ultra-nationalist lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz sued Pamuk over his statement regarding the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. His intention, according to Pamuk himself, had been to highlight issues relating to freedom of speech in the country of his birth. The court initially declined to hear the case, but in 2011 Pamuk was ordered to pay 6,000 liras in total compensation for having insulted the plaintiffs’ honor.

Books in order of publication:

Novels (English)

  • The White Castle, translated by Victoria Holbrook, Manchester (UK): Carcanet Press Limited, 1990; 1991; New York: George Braziller, 1991 [original title: Beyaz Kale]
  • The Black Book, translated by Guneli Gun, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1994 [original title: Kara Kitap]. (A new translation by Maureen Freely was published in 2006)
  • The New Life, translated by Güneli Gün, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1997 [original title: Yeni Hayat]
  • My Name is Red, translated by Erdag M. Goknar, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001 [original title: Benim Adım Kırmızı].
  • Snow, translated by Maureen Freely, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004 [original title: Kar]
  • The Museum of Innocence, translated by Maureen Freely, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, was released on 20 October 2009 [original title: Masumiyet Müzesi]
  • Silent House, translated by Robert Finn, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012 [original title: Sessiz Ev]
  • A Strangeness in My Mind, translated by Ekin Oklap, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015 [original title: Kafamda Bir Tuhaflık]
  • The Red Haired Woman, translated by Ekin Oklap, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2017 [original title: Kırmızı saçlı sad]

Non-fiction

English

  • Istanbul: Memories and the City, translated by Maureen Freely, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005 [original title: İstanbul: Hatıralar ve Şehir]
  • My Father’s Suitcase [original title: Babamın Bavulu] Nobel lecture
  • Other Colors: Essays and a Story, translated by Maureen Freely, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007 [original title: Öteki Renkler]
  • The Innocence of Objects [original title: Şeylerin Masumiyeti]
  • The Naive and Sentimental Novelist, Harvard University Press, 2010
  • Balkon, Steidl Publisher, 2019
  • Nights of Plague – 2021
  • Memories of Distant Mountains: Illustrated Notebooks, 2009-2022 – 2022