Mumbai gets ready for perhaps one of the largest literary events in the city, as we open our doors to Orhan Pamuk, Turkish novelist and winner of the Noble Prize in Literature, 2006. One of Turkey’s most prominent novelists, Pamuk’s books (The White Castle, The Black Book, My Name is Red and Snow)  have been translated to more than 50 languages and have sold almost 10 million copies worldwide.

Pamuk, who is in the city to read excerpts from his collection of books this evening, grew up in a financially affluent but declining bourgeois family. He incorporates a lot of elements from his personal life into works that he has penned like The Black Book and more emphatically in his personal memoirs titled Istanbul. 

Just like several writers across the world who have faced persecution from certain sections of the society for their literary works that have been termed ‘blasphemous’, Pamuk too hasn’t been spared from the hounding. It was back in 2005, that certain statements made by Pamuk regarding the killing of Armenians and Kurds in the Ottoman Empire incited wrath among certain individuals and the Turkish Government. A criminal case was initiated against him based on a complaint filed by an ultra-nationalist lawyer, Kemal Kerincsiz. 

Pamuk later admitted that it was due to a hate campaign initiated against him that forced him to flee the country. He returned to Turkey later in 2005, however, to face charges. Subsequently in an interview with BBC News, he said his books and writings were a symbol of freedom of speech that was “Turkey’s only hope for coming to terms with its history:”

Sujata Chakrabarti / DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication