The White Castle

The White Castle, Orhan Pamuk's celebrated first novel, is the tale of a young Italian scholar. Captured by pirates and put up for auction at the Istanbul slave market, and bought by a Turkish savant eager to learn about scientific and intellectual advances in the West. But as they bond over each others sins and secrets, and their relationship grows increasingly complex, master and slave find themselves part of the Sultan's army, and on a journey that will lead them, ultimately, to the White Castle.

‘A new star has risen in the East-Orhan Pamuk. The White Castle is one of those rare novels that call into being a complete and self-contained world shot through with a peculiar brilliance . . . [He] is a story-teller with as much gumption and narrative zip as Scheherazade.' —New York Times  

‘Elegant and important . . . Comparisons with Kafka and Calvino do not exaggerate; their seriousness, their delicacy and their subtlety are everywhere in evidence.' —Independent  

‘Turkey's foremost novelist and one of the most interesting literary figures anyweher . . . A first-rate storyteller.' —Times Literary Supplement