A mesmerizing love story with a cast of beguiling characters, from the Nobel prizewinning author Orhan Pamuk

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

'A magnificent novel.' Wall Street Journal
'Powerful and moving.' Times Literary Supplement
'Prepare to fall in love' Mail on Sunday
'As head-exploding as War and Peace, and more comforting' Elif Batuman

As a child, Mevlut always felt like he was missing out. When he moves to Istanbul - 'the centre of the world' - he is immediately enthralled. He wanders through its alleys for forty years, working as a street vendor and gaining a unique perspective of a radically changing city.

Mevlut watches his friends and relatives settle down and make their fortunes, while he stumbles toward middle age in a series of jobs leading nowhere. He never manages to shake the 'strangeness in his mind', until at last fortune conspires to let him understand what it is he yearns for . . .

Prizes

Short-listed for International Dublin Literary Award 2017,Short-listed for Man Booker International Prize 2016

Orhan Pamuk is the author of many celebrated books of fiction, nonfiction, and photography. In 2003 he won the IMPAC prize for My Name is Red, and in 2006 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.