The New Life

i READ A BOOK ONE DAY, ANT) MY WHOLE LIFE WAS CHANGED.'Osman, a young university student, becomes obsessed with a magical book that delves into the dangerous nature of love and şelf. He turns his back on home and family, abandons his studies and goes on a search for the meaning of the book's darker secrets. Part road novel, part metaphysieal thriller, The New Life was, on initial publication, the fastest-selling title in Turkish history. Displaying ali of Pamuk's characteristic wit and elegance, it is a stunning evocation of a nation suspended perilously betvveen cast and west.'Brilliantly captures the atmosphere of the Turkish hinterland, the Anatolian steppe and its small tovvns vvith their statues of Atatürk, greasy bars and plastic billboards.' Alain de Botton'A combination of deteetive story and parable . . . Pamuk's blend of fantasy and realism, ingenuity and observation, showing off and modest thoughtfulness throws a powerful beam through the confusion of this odd time we livc in.' Sunday Times'Pellucid, elusive, infinitely suggestive and poignant, it is as though Borges has sustained one of his crystalline fictions for the length of an entire novel. I have hever read anything less clumsy. Everyone should rcad Orhan Pamuk.' New Statesman