(This copy is shamelessly plagiarized from goodreads.com)

At once a fiendishly devious mystery, a beguiling love story, and a brilliant symposium on the power of art, My Name Is Red is a transporting tale set amid the splendor and religious intrigue of sixteenth-century Istanbul, from one of the most prominent contemporary Turkish writers.

The Sultan has commissioned a cadre of the most acclaimed artists in the land to create a great book celebrating the glories of his realm. Their task: to illuminate the work in the European style. But because figurative art can be deemed an affront to Islam, this commission is a dangerous proposition indeed. The ruling elite therefore mustn’t know the full scope or nature of the project, and panic erupts when one of the chosen miniaturists disappears. The only clue to the mystery–or crime? –lies in the half-finished illuminations themselves. Part fantasy and part philosophical puzzle, My Name is Red is a kaleidoscopic journey to the intersection of art, religion, love, sex and power.

In recommending the book, Linda J. quoted John Updike writing in The New Yorker: “Orhan Pamuk’s labor, in this otherworld of miniatures, was long, and the reader’s labor at times feels long, between spells of being entranced and educated.” She counsels patience for it will be rewarded.

Linda has added a page to this website that very briefly examines the history of miniature painting.

I decided to do a separate page for the story of Hüsrev and Shirin, too. Even my summary of a summary is pretty long.

Well worth reading if you have the time is Pamuk’s Nobel acceptance speech from 2006.

Here’s a little 5-minute video of his speech at the Nobel dinner (not the acceptance speech):