ISTANBUL
Turkey’s Nobel prize-winning writer, Orhan Pamuk, attended a book-signing event -- his first in 15 years -- in Istanbul on Saturday for his latest novel, A Strangeness in My Mind.
Pamuk, who in 2006 became Turkey's first and only writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, released his book six years after his last novel.
Speaking to the press after the book signing, he said: “One of the questions constantly asked is ‘Who you are writing for?’ It is actually a trap question. We are writing for our readers, but the concept of the reader is abstract.
“Among the rush of taking pictures and asking for their (the reader's) names to sign their books, you take a rare moment to just to look into their eyes and see that you have contributed to their imagination or what they want to be in the future. It the most obvious pleasure that I feel at these kind of gatherings,” he said.
The 62-year-old novelist said he did not know when precisely the novel would be published in English, but said it would probably be in autumn.
The publishing house revealed that they have distributed 150,000 copies of his book and published an extra 50,000 copies.
Turkish literature-lovers gathered on Saturday in front of the publishing house to get an autograph from Turkey’s sole Nobel-prize winner.
Lasting more than three hours, the event saw hundreds of Pamuk’s fans forming long queues in front of the publishing house in Istanbul’s busy Istiklal Street.
The first person in the queue was Cihan Mercan, 24, a law student from Istanbul, who said: “For me, Pamuk is an important writer as he tells the story of this city, Istanbul, where we were born and raised; he also examines different eras in Turkish history.”
Another Pamuk fan is 20-year old law student Huseyin Akcan, who bought Pamuk’s latest book yesterday and has already read 70 pages.
As Pamuk’s latest book tells the story of a street vendor, Akcan said that he was curious about how the Turkish writer -- who is better-known for characterizing the lives of Turkey’s middle and upper-middle classes -- would describe a protagonist who belonged to a lower class.
Lakshmi Sen, a teacher from India, said she couldn’t wait for its English version to be released.
Pamuk describes the story of his 480-page book as: “both an epic and a modern love story. I spent six years with the protagonist, Mevlut, in my mind.”
“He sells boza -- a popular fermented beverage in Turkey -- on Istanbul's streets between 1969 and 2012. The novel tells the story of the city’s development, newcomers and the daily life of Istanbul,” he added.
Pamuk’s books My Name Is Red and Snow became the most translated and read Turkish works in history.
His books have been translated into 62 languages and have sold more than two million copies worldwide, according to Pamuk's publisher.
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