Author: Orhan Pamuk

List Price: $14.95

Pages: 400

Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition

ISBN: 1400033888    

    | Book description |

The author, born in 1952 into a rapidly fading bourgeois family in Istanbul, spins a masterful tale, moving from his fractured extended family, all living in a communal apartment building, out into the city and encompassing the entire Ottoman Empire. Pamuk sees the slow collapse of the once powerful empire hanging like a pall over the city and its citizens. Central to many Istanbul residents' character is the concept of hzn (melancholy). Istanbul's hzn, Pamuk writes, "is a way of looking at life that... is ultimately as life affirming as it is negating." His world apparently in permanent decline, Pamuk revels in the darkness and decay manifest around him. He minutely describes horrific accidents on the Bosphorus Strait and his own recurring fantasies of murder and mayhem. Throughout, Pamuk details the breakdown of his family: elders die, his parents fight and grow apart, and he must find his way in the world. 

人一生当中至少都有一次反思，带领我们检视自己出生的环境，并反问自己：何以在这天出生在特定世界的一角？就在土耳其帝国瓦解、世界已然忘却了它的存在之际，出生于伊斯坦堡，享誉国际的土耳其作家帕慕克开始领悟到这个贫穷、破败、孤立、有如废墟一般的城市，与自己的命运千丝万缕的纠葛，因此决意重新爬梳文明古城的历史，也以此对抗始终笼罩在这个城市的帝国斜阳的忧伤。他以独特的历史感与善于说故事的手法，透过优美生动的文字，叙述自己重访整个家族起落兴衰的过程，在拼凑自己家族历史的同时，也拼贴出形形色色、多彩多姿的当代伊斯坦堡风情。全书成功地结合了个人记忆与城市历史文化，有如一部自传性质的城市传记。

About Author
Orhan Pamuk is the author of six novels and the recipient of major Turkish and international literary awards. He is one of Europe's most prominent novelists, and his work has been translated into more than twenty languages. He lives in Istanbul.

奧罕·帕慕克（Orhan Pamuk），出生于伊斯坦堡，自一九七四年开始从事写作，曾出版过《白色城堡》、《雪花》等多部作品，他的作品被评论为“当代小说中最新颖、最具原创之作”。其中《伊斯坦堡：一座城市的记忆》更为帕慕克获得2005年诺贝尔文学奖提名的殊荣，并最终摘取了2006年诺贝尔文学大奖。