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Amazon.co.uk Review
Orhan Pamuk is one of Turkey's premier novelists and My Name Is Red, when published in the original Turkish in 1998, became the fastest-selling book in Turkish history. It is high time then that a translation to English was made, and this publication will be widely welcomed by Pamuk's growing legion of English-speaking admirers.

In the late 16th century, during the final years of the reign of Ottoman Sultan Murat III, a great work is commissioned, a book celebrating the Sultan's life. The work is conducted in secret, to the ignorance of the artists involved, for fear of a violent religious reaction to the European style of the illuminations in the book. An artist goes, missing, feared dead, and Black, a painter who has been in a self-enforced exile because of spurned love, returns to help his former Master investigate the disappearance.

Pamuk's prose is as exquisite and rich as the elucidations it describes. This is a dense, atmospherically fevered book, which demands a high level of patience and attention from the reader, perhaps mirroring the patience of the miniaturists. Written in the first person, with multiple narratives, this is a book full of unreliable witnesses, and as the various stories of the narrators unfold, the truth of the disappearance slowly emerges. The sense of place and time are carefully constructed and diligently maintained throughout the novel, which, like Umberto Eco's The Name Of The Rose, far exceeds the genre of literary historical crime to become a hypnotic meditation on religion, love, time, patience and artistic devotion. --Iain Robinson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Synopsis
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.

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My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk  (1)

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38 Reviews 5 star:  (15) 4 star:  (11) 3 star:  (2) 2 star:  (6) 1 star:  (4)           Average Customer Review (38 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   19 of 19 people found the following review helpful: Murder, mystery, philosophy and art in 16th century Istanbul, 22 Nov 2001 By A Customer This review is from: My Name Is Red (Paperback) "My Name is Red" establishes Pamuk as one of the most important novelists currently at work. Previous reviews sadly misunderstand the cultural specificity of his work, or simply label it "exotic". Its account of sixteenth-century Ottoman painting and religious iconoclasm is extraordinary in its perceptiveness, and has become even more compelling after the events of 11 September. The book deals in difficult, abstract ideas, but it's worth sticking with, and the muder-mystery and love elements keep it ticking along. A wonderful novel.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   25 of 26 people found the following review helpful: Islamic historical fiction, 3 Sep 2006 By  Depressaholic (London, UK) - See all my reviews    `MNIR' is a whodunit set in late 16th century Istanbul. An illustrator of manuscripts (Elegant Effendi) is murdered by one of his colleagues. Black Effendi, newly returned from exile, is set the task of finding the murderer by his uncle, for whom the victim was working when he was killed. As Black delves deeper into the output of the workshop in which Elegant worked, he uncovers many tensions between the workers, including over the intrusion of European techniques into Islamic illustration, the succession to the position of master of the workshop, professional jealousy and good old-fashioned lust. Black must unravel these strands to identify the murderer before the sultan makes good a threat to have the whole workshop arrested and tortured. Parallels with Eco's `The Name of the Rose' are impossible to avoid. Both books are murder mysteries whose resolution is based in religious philosophy, and both play very cleverly with the idea of big religious concepts interacting with the baser aspects of human nature. Fans of one will enjoy the other. Pamuk's writing is more humanistic than Eco's, and perhaps less coldly academic. Black's investigations are woven in with a genuinely fascinating love story that becomes integral to the story, rather than just a distraction. In addition, Pamuk's writing is very beautiful, and the whole book is set against the background of a wintry and claustrophobic Istanbul that is very well described. Because of this, it is slow paced, occasionally too slow, and the murder mystery aspect becomes secondary to Black's own life in places. However, in general I really enjoyed reading `MNIR' and, despite it being a big book, finished it fairly quickly. It was enjoyable and cerebral, and a great piece of historical fiction.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   37 of 39 people found the following review helpful: Quirky and delightful book, 2 Feb 2006 By  "fatma68" - See all my reviews I have decided to write this review for 2 reasons: 1. I read the book (!) 2. The reviews haven't done the book justice. I am native Turkish but having grown up and lived in the UK all my life it was easier for me to read the English translation of this book. Being Turkish I note that the translations were perfect, it has been translated EXACTLY. However, this doesn't take into consideration cultural understandings of terms and phrases. As a Turk it was easier for me to identify with these than perhaps other readers. I was quite surprised by some of the reviews for this book which I put down to "lost in translation" hence my own review... I found the book original and hugely entertaining. It's a detective story of sorts with love thrown in. But Orhan Pamuk is dealing with lots of other issues too: differences in Eastern/Western art, culture and the impact of religion. Its a very original book and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. Take it slow and it will all make sense. Promise!  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this) › See all 38 customer reviews...		Most Recent Customer Reviews mis-packaged meditation on art, aesthetics and religion Firstly, despite the way Faber have decided to promote this book, it's not a murder mystery in the way those words are usually understood: so if you're looking for a thriller with... Read more Published 1 month ago by Roman Clodia verbose, slow and irrelevant apart from the first chapter that sucks you into the story, the rest of the narrative agonisingly slow, irrelevant, and repetitive. Read more Published 2 months ago by anon REVIEW : MY NAME IS RED The story of the book 'MY NAME IS RED' revolvs around the Turkey of sixteenth century. But the point Orhan Pamuk makes is the recent one. Read more Published 5 months ago by NAVAL LANGA Dense This is a complex book. I found it extremely slow going, as it was clearly working on so many novels, and had so much to say that I almost felt that I should read each page twice... Read more Published 5 months ago by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley