“It was the happiest moment of my life, though I didn’t know it.” So begins the new novel, his first since winning the Nobel Prize, from the universally acclaimed author of Snow and My Name Is Red. It is 1975, a perfect spring in Istanbul. Kemal, scion of one of the city’s wealthiest families, is about to become engaged to Sibel, daughter of another prominent family, when he encounters Füsun, a beautiful shopgirl and a distant relation. Once the long-lost cousins violate the code of virginity, a rift begins to open between Kemal and the world of the Westernized Istanbul bourgeosie—a world, as he lovingly describes it, with opulent parties and clubs, society gossip, restaurant rituals, picnics, and mansions on the Bosphorus, infused with the melancholy of decay—until finally he breaks off his engagement to Sibel. But his resolve comes too late. For eight years Kemal will find excuses to visit another Istanbul, that of the impoverished backstreets where Füsun, her heart now hardened, lives with her parents, and where Kemal discovers the consolations of middle-class life at a dinner table in front of the television. His obsessive love will also take him to the demimonde of Istanbul film circles (where he promises to make Füsun a star), a scene of seedy bars, run-down cheap hotels, and small men with big dreams doomed to bitter failure. In his feckless pursuit, Kemal becomes a compulsive collector of objects that chronicle his lovelorn progress and his afflicted heart’s reactions: anger and impatience, remorse and humiliation, deluded hopes of recovery, and daydreams that transform Istanbul into a cityscape of signs and specters of his beloved, from whom now he can extract only meaningful glances and stolen kisses in cars, movie houses, and shadowy corners of parks. A last change to realize his dream will come to an awful end before Kemal discovers that all he finally can possess, certainly and eternally, is the museum he has created of his collection, this map of a society’s manners and mores, and of one man’s broken heart.

A stirring exploration of the nature of romantic attachment and of the mysterious allure of collecting, The Museum of Innocence also plumbs the depths of an Istanbul half Western and half traditional—its emergent modernity, its vast cultural history. This is Orhan Pamuk’s greatest achievement.

土耳其作家奥尔罕·帕慕克是享誉国际的土耳其文坛巨擘。1952年出生于伊斯坦堡,在伊斯坦布尔科技大学主修建筑。

1979年第一部作品《塞夫得特州长和他的儿子们》得到《土而其日报》小说首奖,并在1982年出版,1983年再度赢得奥尔罕·凯马尔小说奖。

1983年出版第二本小说《寂静的房子》,并于1991年获得得到欧洲发现奖,同年出版法文版。

1985年出版第一本历史小说《白色城堡》,这本小说让他享誉全球,纽约时报书评称他：“一位新星正在东方诞生——土耳其作家奥尔罕.帕慕克。”这本书荣获1990年美国外国小说独立奖。

1990年出版《黑书》是一个里程碑,这本小说让他在土耳其文学圈备受争议的同时也广受一般读者喜爱。法文版获得了法兰西文化奖。1992年他以这本小说为蓝本,完成《隐蔽的脸》的电影剧本。

1997年《新人生》一书的出版在土耳其造成轰动,成为土耳其历史上销售速度最快的书籍。

1998年《我的名字叫红》出版,这本书确定了他在国际文坛上的的文学地位；获得2003年都柏林文学奖,这个奖奖金高达10万欧元,是全世界奖金最高的文学奖,同时还赢得了法国文艺奖和意大利格林扎纳.卡佛文学奖。

2002年作者发表小说《雪》,获得畅销,并选入2004年的《纽约时报书评》“年度好书”。此书成为作者四年后获得诺贝尔文学奖的重要砝码。

2005年作者凭新作《伊斯坦布尔》获诺贝尔文学奖提名,据传仅以微弱劣势输给了英国著名剧作家哈罗德.品特。同年获得德国书业和平奖。

2006年10月12日战胜夺标呼声颇高的叙利亚诗人阿杜尼斯、美国小说家菲利普.罗斯、卡罗尔.奥茨、以色列小说家阿莫司.奥兹、韩国诗人高银以及加拿大女作家玛格丽特.阿特伍德等人,获得本年度诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由是“在寻找故乡的忧郁灵魂时,发现了文化碰撞和融合中的新象征”。

他的作品已被译成40多种语言出版。文学评论家把他和普鲁斯特、托马斯·曼、卡尔维诺、博尔赫斯、安伯托·艾柯等大师相提并论。