Istanbul, Orhan Pamuk
Istanbul, Orhan Pamuk
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Istanbul
Memories and the City

Author: Orhan Pamuk

Narrator: John Lee

Unabridged: 9 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/09/2013


Synopsis

From the Nobel Prize winner and acclaimed author of My Name is Red comes a portrait of Istanbul by its foremost writer, revealing the melancholy that comes of living amid the ruins of a lost empire.  

"Delightful, profound, marvelously origina.... Pamuk tells the story of the city through the eyes of memory." —The Washington Post Book World

A shimmering evocation, by turns intimate and panoramic, of one of the world’s great cities, by its foremost writer. Orhan Pamuk was born in Istanbul and still lives in the family apartment building where his mother first held him in her arms. His portrait of his city is thus also a self-portrait, refracted by memory and the melancholy—or hüzün—that all Istanbullus share.

With cinematic fluidity, Pamuk moves from his glamorous, unhappy parents to the gorgeous, decrepit mansions overlooking the Bosphorus; from the dawning of his self-consciousness to the writers and painters—both Turkish and foreign—who would shape his consciousness of his city. Like Joyce’s Dublin and Borges’ Buenos Aires, Pamuk’s Istanbul is a triumphant encounter of place and sensibility, beautifully written and immensely moving.

About The Author

ORHAN PAMUK won the Nobel Prize for Literature. His novel My Name Is Red won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His work has been translated into more than 50 languages. The author lives in Istanbul.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Dr. Appu on December 15, 2022

If you have been searching for one of the best memoirs written by an author about a city, your search ends here. Orhan Pamuk was born in Istanbul. Apart from three years in New York, he has spent all his life in Istanbul. He gives a beautiful description of Istanbul and all his memories associate......more

Goodreads review by Kelly on December 29, 2008

It is just lucky that I happened to read Menocal's Ornament of the World just before this, as it perfectly prepared me for the psychological labyrinth that is this book. It introduced me to a beautiful, helpful image for Pamuk's creation- the "memory palaces" and "memory gardens". This is not an int......more


Quotes

"Delightful, profound, marvelously original.... Pamuk tells the story of the city through the eyes of memory." —The Washington Post Book World

"Far from a conventional appreciation of the city's natural and architectural splendors, Istanbul tells of an invisible melancholy and the way it acts on an imaginative young man, aggrieving him but pricking his creativity." —The New York Times

"Brilliant.... Pamuk insistently discribes a]dizzingly gorgeous, historically vibrant metropolis." —Newsday

“A fascinating read for anyone who has even the slightest acquaintance with this fabled bridge between east and west.” —The Economist


Awards

  • National Book Critics Circle Awards
  • Nobel Prize