Book description
What happens within us when we read a novel? And how does a novel
create its unique effects, so distinct from those of a painting, a
film, or a poem? In this inspired, thoughtful, deeply personal book,
Orhan Pamuk takes us into the worlds of the writer and the reader,
revealing their intimate connections. Pamuk draws on Friedrich
Schiller's famous distinction between "naive" poets-who
write spontaneously, serenely, unselfconsciously-and
"sentimental" poets: those who are reflective, emotional,
questioning, and alive to the artifice of the written word. Harking
back to the beloved novels of his youth and ranging through the work
of such writers as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Stendhal, Flaubert, Proust,
Mann, and Naipaul, he explores the oscillation between the naive and
the reflective, and the search for an equilibrium, that lie at the
center of the novelist's craft. He ponders the novel's visual and
sensual power-its ability to conjure landscapes so vivid they can make
the here-and-now fade away. In the course of this exploration, he
considers the elements of character, plot, time, and setting that
compose the "sweet illusion" of the fictional world. Anyone
who has known the pleasure of becoming immersed in a novel will enjoy,
and learn from, this perceptive book by one of the modern masters of
the art.
Orhan Pamuk, described as 'one of the freshest, most original
voices in contemporary fiction' (Independent on Sunday), is the author
of many books, including The White Castle, The Black Book and The New
Life. In 2003 he won the International IMPAC Award for My Name is Red,
and in 2004 Faber published the translation of his novel Snow, which
The Times described as 'a novel of profound relevance to the present
moment'. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006. His
most recent novel, The Museum of Innocence, was published in 2010.
Orhan Pamuk lives in Istanbul.
