The Museum of Innocence

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Orhan Pamuk

Faber, London, 2010, English; translated from Turkish

Fiction

ISBN: 9780571237005

From the Publisher. The newest novel from the universally acclaimed author of Snow and My Name is Red , his first since winning the Nobel Prize.

It is a perfect Spring in 1975, Istanbul. Kemal, heir to one of the town’s wealthiest families, is about to become engaged to Sibel, from another aristocratic family, when he encounters Füsun, a beautiful shopgirl, and a distant relation. As they break the taboo of virginity, a rift opens between Kemal and his lovingly described world of the westernized families of Istanbul with their opulent parties and clubs, society gossip, dining-room rituals, picnics, their mansions on the Bosphorus infused with the melancholy of decay.

A stirring exploration of the nature of romantic attachment, and of the mysterious allure of collecting, The Museum of Innocence plumbs the depths of an Istanbul half western and half traditional—its rituals, its morality, its vast cultural history.

On 1 book list

Aric Chen

On Aric Chen’s Book List

I haven’t been to the actual museum in Istanbul, but this book makes it a pilgrimage high on my list.

纯真博物馆

奥尔罕·帕慕克

我还没有亲自拜访伊斯坦布尔的实体博物馆。但这本书让它排在了我的朝圣榜首位。

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