A Quick Guide to Orhan Pamuk

Why is he a front runner for the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature?

The Nobel committee loves two things—writers who address major contemporary issues; and writers who have suffered for their art. Pamuk qualifies on both counts. But hype and court cases aside, he is undeniably a writer of world-class stature. John Updike compared Pamuk to Proust for his "dispassionate intelligence and arabesques of introspection." Margaret Atwood called “Snow” "essential reading for our times." No other writer has explored the crucial theme of the post-9/11 generation—the conflict between the Islamic world and the West—so lyrically, or with such sensitivity.

© 2006