Istanbul, Paperback Book, By: Orhan Pamuk

Evocation of a city, a novel by training and reflection on melancholy, Istanbul is all of these at the same time. Throughout the pages, Orhan Pamuk remembers his childhood walks, on foot, by car or by boat, and takes us through sloping alleys and gardens, on the banks of the Bosporus, in front of decrepit villas, thus drawing the portrait. fascinating part of a declining metropolis. Former capital of a vast empire, Istanbul is looking for an identity, between tradition and modernity, religion and secularism, and the changes which alter its face do not escape the gaze of the writer, a fine connoisseur of its history, especially that these transformations accompany another tear, much more intimate and painful, brought about by the slow disintegration of the Pamuk family - a family whose members, grandparents, uncles and aunts, all lived in the same building - and by the drift both financial and emotional of his parents. In this abundant work, masterfully composed and richly illustrated, Orhan Pamuk invites us to go back with him to the time of his sentimental education and, in fine, to read the novel of the birth of a writer.