Silent House

er before published in English, SilentHouse is Orhan Pamuk's second novel, a moving story of a Turkish family gathering in the shadow of the impending military coup of 1980. in an old mansion in Cennethisar, a former fishing village near istanbul, a widow, Fatma, awaits the annual summer visit of her grandchildren. She has lived in the village for decades, ever since her husband, an idealistle young doctor, fırst arrived to serve the poor fishermen. Now mostly bedridden, she is attended by her faithful servant Recep, a dwarf and the doctor's illegitimate son. They share memories, and grievances, of the early years, before Cennethisar became a high-class resort. Her visiting grandchildren are Faruk, a dissipated failed historian; his sensitive leftist sister, Nilgun; and Metin, a high-school student drawn to the fast life of the nouveaux riches, who dreams of going to America. But it is Recep's nephew Hassan, a high-school dropout, lately fallen in with right-wing nationalists, who will draw the visiting family into the growing political catacİysm issuing from Turkey's tumultuous century-long struggle for modernity. Praise for Orhan Pamuk's TheMuseum oflnnocence: 'Before anything else, it is simply an enthralling, immensely enjoyable piece of storytelling.'James Lasdun, Guardian 'Pamuk has created a work concerning romantic love worthy to stand in the company of Lolita, Madame Bovary nnâAnna Karenina! lan Irvine, Financial Times 'Deeply and compellingly explores the interplay between erotic obsession and sentimentality - and never önce slips into the sentimental. There is a master at work in this book.' Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times