第1章 Praise

Further praise for My Name is Red:

'Heartbreakingly persuasive … This novel then is formally brilliant, witty and about serious matters. But even this inclusive description does not really capture what I feel is the novel's true greatness, which lies in its managing to do with apparent ease what novelists have always striven for but very few achieve. It conveys in a wholly convincing manner the emotional, cerebral and physical texture of daily life, and it does so with great compassion, generosity and humanity.' Dick Davis, Times Literary Supplement

'A philosophical thriller constructed around the clash between these two views of artistic meaning, which is also a chasm between two different world civilisations. Great fiction speaks of its time; in the week of the American suicide bombings, this outstanding novel clamours to be heard … [It] is a profound work with deep roots. Far from being a mere "historical novel", it has unforgettable narrative drive that unites past and present, as well as the high art with popular appeal that has made Pamuk into Turkey's greatest living writer … In this rare and wonderful work, Pamuk can make the same claim to a transcending unity of understanding.' Hywel Williams, Guardian

'Pamuk demonstrates the patience and constructive ability of the nineteenth-century fabricators and their heirs Proust and Mann … [and his] ingenuity is yoked to a profound sense of enigma and doubleness.' John Updike, The New Yorker

'His work has the delicate complexity of a medieval arabesque, an effect which is finely judged, for Pamuk's knowledge of Turkey's cultural past is rivalled only by his interest in the potential of modern fictional forms … As a meditation on art in particular, My Name is Red is exquisitely subtle, demanding and repaying the closest attention.' Tom Holland, Daily Telegraph

'A scintillating fusion of murder mystery, postmodernist fable and historical romance. Comparisons will no doubt be drawn to Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, and there are broad similarities, although Pamuk's vigorous style and subtle characterisation are wholly his own … My Name is Red, with its stories within stories, philosophical speculation and complex characters is a superb example of what the novel can do … Enchanting.' S. B. Kelly, Scotland on Sunday

'Reading the novel is like being in a magically exotic dream. But there is a hard headed intellectuality to it also. Pamuk writes with enormous gusto … It's a book in which you can thoroughly immerse yourself. Those that do so will experience much that is delightful.' Alan Massie, The Scotsman

'It embraces detective fiction, artistic disquisition and psychological thriller. Above all, the reader is treated to an extraordinary plangent lament for principles of craftsmanship which history has buried and which fashion does not value.' Murrough O'Brien, Independent on Sunday

For Rüya

You slew a man and then fell out

with one another concerning him.

—KORAN, "THE COW," 72

The blind and the seeing are not equal.

—KORAN, "THE CREATOR," 19

To God belongs the East and the West.

—KORAN, "THE COW," 115