Beyond the Book: Background information when reading Snow

Beyond the Book

This article relates to Snow

Orhan Pamuk was born in 1952 in Istanbul, Turkey and, other than a couple of years in New York, has lived all his life in Istanbul.  He started to write regularly in 1974, and his books have been translated into about 20 languages.  I believe Snow is his seventh book, but only his fifth to be translated into English.  Previous books are The White Castle, 1991 (Beyaz Kale), The Black Book, 1995 (Kara Kitap), New Life, 1997 (Yeni Hayat) and My Name Is Red, 2001.  The words in brackets are the titles of the particular books in Turkish; the dates are the USA publication dates.  

His most well-known book to date in English  is My Name Is Red - an historical mystery set in the Ottoman Empire during the 16th century.  

When Snow was published in Turkey in 2002 it angered both Westernized Turks and Islamists; quite a feat when you think about it!

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This article relates to Snow. It first ran in the July 6, 2005 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.