Calligraphy, Illustration, Turkey 

The Sultan secretly commissions a great book: a celebration of his life and the Ottoman Empire, to be illuminated by the best artists of the day - in the European manner. 

In Istanbul, in the late 1590s, the Sultan secretly commissions a great book: a celebration of his life and his empire, to be illuminated by the best artists of the day - in the European manner. But when one of the miniaturists goes missing and is feared murdered, their master seeks outside help.

Publisher Comments
At once a fiendishly devious mystery, a beguiling love story, and a brilliant symposium on the power of art, My Name Is Red is a transporting tale set amid the splendor and religious intrigue of sixteenth-century Istanbul, from one of the most prominent contemporary Turkish writers.
The Sultan has commissioned a cadre of the most acclaimed artists in the land to create a great book celebrating the glories of his realm. Their task: to illuminate the work in the European style. But because figurative art can be deemed an affront to Islam, this commission is a dangerous proposition indeed. The ruling elite therefore mustn't know the full scope or nature of the project, and panic erupts when one of the chosen miniaturists disappears. The only clue to the mystery — or crime? — lies in the half-finished illuminations themselves. Part fantasy and part philosophical puzzle, My Name is Red is a kaleidoscopic journey to the intersection of art, religion, love, sex, and power.

Review
"Pamuk's novel could cause a sensation....Widely respected abroad for his previous novels...Pamuk should gain new readers here with this more accessible, charming and intellectually satisfying narrative." Publishers Weekly
Review
"[A] whimsical but provocative exploration of the nature of art in an Islamic society....A rich feast of ideas, images, and lore." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"This intellectual mystery will appeal to fans of Eco, Pears, and Perez-Reverte." Nancy Pearl, Booklist
Review
"Erdag Goknar deserves praise for the cool, smooth English in which he has rendered Pamuk's finespun sentences, passionate art appreciations, sly pedantic debates, [and] eerie urban scenes." John Updike, The New Yorker
Review
"Pamuk is a novelist and a great one....My Name is Red is by far the grandest and most astonishing contest in his internal East-West war....[Readers will] be lofted by the paradoxical lightness and gaiety of the writing, by the wonderfully winding talk perpetually about to turn a corner, and by the stubborn humanity in the characters' maneuvers to survive. It is a humanity whose lies and silences emerge as endearing and oddly bracing individual truths." Richard Eder, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"It is neither passion nor homicide that makes...My Name is Red the rich and essential book that it is....It is Pamuk's rendering of the intense life of artists negotiating the devilishly sharp edge of Islam 1,000 years after its birth that elevates [the novel] to the rank of modern classic....To read Pamuk is to be steeped in a paradox that precedes our modern-day feuds between secularism and fundamentalism." Jonathan Levi, The Los Angeles Times Book Review
Review
"Most enchanting....Playful, intellectually challenging, with an engaging love story and a full canvas of memorable characters, My Name is Red is a novel many, many people will enjoy." David Walton, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Review
"Pamuk is getting at a subject that has compelled modern thinkers from Heidegger to Derrida....My Name is Red is a meditation on authenticity and originality....An ambitious work on so many levels at once." Melvin Jules Bukiet, Chicago Tribune
Review
"Intensely exhilarating....Arresting and provocative....To say that...My Name is Red is a murder mystery is like saying that Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov is a murder mystery: it is true, but the work so richly transcends the conventional limitations of genre as to make the definition seem almost irrelevant....It conveys in a wholly convincing manner the emotional, cerebral, and physical texture of daily life, and it does so with great compassion, generosity, and humanity....An extraordinary achievement." Dick Davis, Times Literary Supplement (UK)
Review
"My Name is Red is a fabulously rich novel, highly compelling....This pivotal book, which absorbed Pamuk through the 1990s, could conclusively establish him as one of the world's finest living writers." Guy Mannes-Abbott, The Independent (UK)
Review
"[B]oth an examination of the way figurative art is viewed within Islam and a love story that demonstrates the tricky mechanics of marriage laws. Award-winning Turkish author Pamuk creatively casts the novel with colorful characters...and provides a palpable sense of atmosphere of the Ottoman Empire that history and literary fans will appreciate." Library Journal
Review
"The interweaving of human and philosophical intrigue is very much as I remember it in The Name of the Rose....But, in my view, his book is by far the better of the two....More than any other book I can think of, it captures not just Istanbul's past and present contradictions, but also its terrible, timeless beauty. It's almost perfect, in other words. All it needs is the Nobel Prize." Maureen Freely, New Statesman (UK)
Review
"A perfect example of Pamuk's method as a novelist, which is to combine literary trickery with page-turning readability....As a meditation on art, in particular, My Name is Red is exquisitely subtle, demanding and repaying the closest attention....We in the West can only feel grateful that such a novelist as Pamuk exists, to act as a bridge between our culture and that of a heritage quite as rich as our own." Tom Holland, Daily Telegraph (UK)
Review
"A wonderful novel, dreamy, passionate and august, exotic in the most original and exciting way. Orhan Pamuk is indisputably a major novelist." Philip Hensher, The Spectator (UK)
Review
"Readers...will find themselves lured into a richly described and remarkable world....Reading the novel is like being in a magically exotic dream....Splendidly enjoyable and rewarding....A book in which you can thoroughly immerse yourself." Allan Massie, The Scotsman (UK)
Review
"[In this] magnificent new novel...Pamuk takes the reader into the strange and beautiful world of Islamic art, in which Western notions no longer make sense....In this world of forgeries, where some might be in danger of losing their faith in literature, Pamuk is the real thing, and this book might well be one of the few recent works of fiction that will be remembered at the end of this century." Avkar Altinel, The Observer (UK)

About the Author
Orhan Pamuk is the author of seven novels and the recipient of major Turkish and international literary awards. He is one of Europe's most prominent novelists, and his work has been translated into twenty-six languages. He lives in Istanbul. 

Material Type: Fiction
Document Type: Book
All Authors / Contributors: Orhan Pamuk; Erdağ M Göknar

ISBN: 9780571268832 0571268838
OCLC Number: 892951835
Notes: Trad. de : "Benim adim kirmizi"
Description: 1 vol. (xiii-671 p.) : carte, couv. ill. en coul. ; 20 cm.
Responsibility: Orhan Pamuk ; translated by Erdağ M. Göknar.