ISTANBUL
Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, who won Turkey’s first Nobel Prize in 2006, has revealed that his new book will be published on December 9.
Istanbul native Pamuk’s latest work ‘Kafamda Bir Tuhaflik Var’ - A Strangeness In My Mind - will be published in Turkish after a six-year break since his last novel, it was revealed on Monday.
Yapi Kredi Publishing also released a video in which Pamuk tells the story of his 480-page book.
“Kafamda Bir Tuhaflik is both an epic and a modern love story. I spent six years with the protagonist, Mevlut, in my mind,” Pamuk says.
“He sells boza – a popular fermented beverage in Turkey - on Istanbul's streets between 1969 and 2012,” he adds.
“The novel tells the story of the city’s development, newcomers ... and the daily life of Istanbul,” the 62-year-old novelist said.
Pamuk says in the video that he interviewed street vendors and rewrote their stories in accordance with strangeness of “Mevlut’s mind.”
He said that his protagonist was both similar and dissimilar to him: “We are not close to each other where our life styles are concerned but I share many things with Mevlut such as thoughts in our minds and the ability and the desire to philosophize life in a shady street through finding hints from small details.”
Pamuk’s earlier 2013 collection ‘I Am A Tree’ contained a long chapter about Mevlut Karatas, in which he tells the story of his protagonist’s school days.
Pamuk’s books have been translated into 62 languages and have sold more than two million copies worldwide, according to his publisher.
His books ‘My Name Is Red’ and ‘Snow’ became the most translated and read Turkish works in history.
When Pamuk won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, the Swedish Academy said: “In the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city, he has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures.”
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