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Spring 2018: 2. Orhan Pamuk: A Strange Mind



Turkey's best-known writer, the Nobel Prize-winning Orhan Pamuk, glories in his city of Istanbul, which in his lifetime has grown from two to fifteen million people. Despite political controversy which nearly forced him into exile, he continues to live in the city which feeds his novels. They evoke the lost world of his own eccentric family, explore Turkey's rich Ottoman past and engage with its teeming troubled present.\n\nPoised between east and west, it is at once modern and traditional, secular and religious. An obsessive, outspoken and engaging man, Pamuk paces through the backstreets of Istanbul, showing Alan Yentob the places which have inspired his work - the Ottoman palace recreated in his best-selling murder mystery My Name Is Red, the burgeoning building sites and high rises which are the surprising setting for his recent books, and his extraordinary Museum of Innocence - a novel and a real museum in one.

Source: BBC 4

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