Orhan Pamuk

In the seventeenth century, a young Italian scholar travelling from Venice is captured by pirates and taken to Constantinople, where he becomes a slave. His new master, Hoja, is an Ottoman scholar fascinated by Western science and technology. But their relationship becomes increasingly strange when they discover that they look almost exactly alike. As the Italian teaches Hoja everything he knows about astronomy, medicine, and engineering, their intellectual partnership develops into a psychological struggle. Each man becomes obsessed with understanding the other, probing his memories, fears, and deepest secrets. Gradually, the boundaries between master and slave begin to blur, raising an unsettling question: if two people know everything about each other, can they exchange identities? Set against the grandeur and brutality of the Ottoman Empire, The White Castle is a philosophical tale about selfhood, cultural differences, and the fragile boundaries separating East from West.

On a snowy day in Istanbul, lawyer Galip discovers that his wife, Rüya, has disappeared. Unable to understand why she has left, he begins searching the city’s crowded streets, old neighbourhoods, and hidden corners for clues. His investigation becomes even more mysterious when he discovers that Rüya’s half-brother, Celâl, a famous newspaper columnist, has vanished too. As Galip follows the traces they have left behind, he becomes immersed in Celâl’s newspaper columns, which explore Istanbul’s history, its forgotten stories, and the secrets concealed beneath everyday life. The search gradually transforms into something more profound: a journey through the city’s collective memory and Galip’s own uncertain identity. Blending mystery, philosophical reflection, and a vivid portrait of Istanbul, The Black Book explores the desire to become someone else and the difficulty of knowing who we really are. Pamuk transforms the city into a labyrinth of stories in which the search for a missing person becomes a search for the self.

“One day I read a book, and my whole life changed.” With this extraordinary declaration, university student Osman begins a journey that will pull him away from everything familiar. After reading a mysterious book, he becomes convinced that its pages contain the promise of another existence—a hidden world waiting just beyond the boundaries of ordinary life. Captivated by its message, Osman abandons his studies and sets out to discover the transformation it promises. He is joined in his search by Canan, a fellow student who has also been profoundly affected by the book. Their journey takes them across Turkey on endless bus rides through provincial towns and anonymous highways, where strange encounters and sudden accidents blur the line between reality and illusion. As Osman searches for the book’s secrets, his quest becomes increasingly entangled with love, obsession, and the possibility that his old identity is disappearing. Part philosophical mystery and part surreal road novel, The New Life explores the power of literature to transform—and sometimes consume—the lives of its readers. Pamuk questions whether we can truly escape our former selves or whether the search for a new life is itself another form of illusion.