The Red-Haired Woman
Published on 5. September 2017
256 pages
978-0-571-33033-1 (ISBN)
Description
"Many years have now gone by, and jealousy compels me to keep her name a secret, even from my readers. But I must provide a full and truthful account of what happened."
It is mid-1980s Istanbul and Master Mahmut and his apprentice use ancient methods to dig wells - they are desperate to find water in a barren land. This is the tale of their struggle, but it is also a deeper investigation - through mesmerising stories and images - into Pamuk's prevailing themes: fathers and sons, the state and individual freedom, reading and seeing.
It is also a richly literary work: The Red-Haired Woman borrows from the tradition of the French conte philosophique and asks probing questions of ethics and of the role of art in our lives. It is both a short, realist text investigating a murder which took place thirty years ago near Istanbul - and a fictional inquiry into the literary foundations of civilizations, comparing two fundamental myths of the West and the East respectively: Sophocles's Oedipus Rex (a story of patricide) and Ferdowsi's tale of Rostam and Sohrab (a story of filicide).
The Red-Haired Woman is a masterful and mesmerising work which further confirms Orhan Pamuk as one of our greatest novelists.
It is mid-1980s Istanbul and Master Mahmut and his apprentice use ancient methods to dig wells - they are desperate to find water in a barren land. This is the tale of their struggle, but it is also a deeper investigation - through mesmerising stories and images - into Pamuk's prevailing themes: fathers and sons, the state and individual freedom, reading and seeing.
It is also a richly literary work: The Red-Haired Woman borrows from the tradition of the French conte philosophique and asks probing questions of ethics and of the role of art in our lives. It is both a short, realist text investigating a murder which took place thirty years ago near Istanbul - and a fictional inquiry into the literary foundations of civilizations, comparing two fundamental myths of the West and the East respectively: Sophocles's Oedipus Rex (a story of patricide) and Ferdowsi's tale of Rostam and Sohrab (a story of filicide).
The Red-Haired Woman is a masterful and mesmerising work which further confirms Orhan Pamuk as one of our greatest novelists.
More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
File size
1,78 MB
ISBN-13
978-0-571-33033-1 (9780571330331)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Orhan Pamuk
The Red-Haired Woman
Book
03/2018
Faber & Faber
€28.67
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Orhan Pamuk
The Red-Haired Woman
Book
09/2017
Faber & Faber
€41.07
Article exhausted; check different version
Persons
Orhan Pamuk won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006. His novel My Name Is Red won the 2003 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His most recent novel, A Strangeness in My Mind, was an international bestseller and was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize. His work has been translated into more than sixty languages. He lives in Istanbul.
