Orhan Pamuk

    Orhan Pamuk was born in Istanbul in 1952 and grew up in a large family similar to those which he describes in his novels Cevdet Bey and His Sons and The Black Book, in the wealthy westernised district of Nisantasi. As he writes in his autobiographical book Istanbul, from his childhood until the age of 22 he devoted himself largely to painting and dreamed of becoming an artist. After graduating from the secular American Robert College in Istanbul, he studied architecture at Istanbul Technical University for three years, but abandoned the course when he gave up his ambition to become an architect and artist. He went on to graduate in journalism from Istanbul University, but never worked as a journalist. At the age of 23 Pamuk decided to become a novelist, and giving up everything else retreated into his flat and began to write.

    His first novel Cevdet Bey and His Sons was published seven years later in 1982. The novel is the story of three generations of a wealthy Istanbul family living in Nisantasi, Pamuk's own home district. The novel was awarded both the Orhan Kemal and Milliyet literary prizes. The following year Pamuk published his novel The Silent House, which in French translation won the 1991 Prix de la douverte europne. The White Castle (1985) about the frictions and friendship between a Venetian slave and an Ottoman scholar was published in English and many other languages from 1990 onwards, bringing Pamuk his first international fame. The same year Pamuk went to America, where he was a visiting scholar at Columbia University in New York from 1985 to 1988. It was there that he wrote most of his novel The Black Book, in which the streets, past, chemistry and texture of Istanbul are described through the story of a lawyer seeking his missing wife. This novel was published in Turkey in 1990, and in French translation won the Prix France Culture. The Black Book enlarged Pamuk's fame both in Turkey and internationally as an author at once popular and experimental, and able to write about past and present with the same intensity. In 1991 Pamuk's daughter R鼀a was born. That year saw the production of a film Hidden Face, whose script by Pamuk was based on a one-page story in The Black Book.

    His novel The New Life, about young university students influenced by a mysterious book, was published in Turkey in 1994 and became one of the most widely read books in Turkish literature. My Name Is Red, about Ottoman and Persian artists and their ways of seeing and portraying the non-western world, told through a love story and family story, was published in 1998. This novel won the French Prix Du Meilleur Livre Etranger, the Italian Grinzane Cavour (2002) and the International IMPAC Dublin literary award (2003). From the mid-1990s Pamuk took a critical stance towards the Turkish state in articles about human rights and freedom of thought, although he took little interest in politics. Snow, which he describes as 'my first and last political novel,' was published in 2002. In this book set in the small city of Kars in northeastern Turkey he experimented with a new type of 'political novel,' telling the story of violence and tension between political Islamists, soldiers, secularists, and Kurdish and Turkish nationalists. In 1999 a selection of his articles on literature and culture written for newspapers and magazines in Turkey and abroad, together with a selection of writings from his private notebooks, was published under the title Other Colours.

    Pamuk's most recent book, Istanbul, is a poetical work that is hard to classify, combining the author's early memoirs up to the age of 22, and an essay about the city of Istanbul, illustrated with photographs from his own album, and pictures by western painters and Turkish photographers.

    Apart from three years in New York, Orhan Pamuk has spent all his life in the same streets and district of Istanbul, and he now lives in the building where he was raised. Pamuk has been writing novels for 30 years and never done any other job except writing. His books have been translated into more than 40 languages.


    奥尔罕·帕慕克(Orhan Pamuk)（1952.06.07～ ）

    奥尔罕·帕慕克(Orhan Pamuk)（1952.06.07～ ）

    帕慕克被认为是当代欧洲最核心的三位文学家之一，是享誉国际的土耳其文坛巨擘。出生于伊斯坦堡，在伊斯坦布尔科技大学主修建筑。

    1979年第一部作品《塞夫得特州长和他的儿子们》得到《土而其日报》小说首奖，并在1982年出版，1983年再度赢得奥尔罕?凯马尔小说奖。

    1983年出版第二本小说《寂静的房子》，并于1991年获得得到欧洲发现奖，同年出版法文版。

    1985年出版第一本历史小说《白色城堡》，这本小说让他享誉全球，纽约时报书评称他：“一位新星正在东方诞生——土耳其作家奥罕?帕慕克。”这本书荣获1990年美国外国小说独立奖。

    1990年出版《黑书》是一个里程碑，这本小说让他在土耳其文学圈备受争议的同时也广受一般读者喜爱。法文版获得了法兰西文化奖。1992年他以这本小说为蓝本，完成《隐蔽的脸》的电影剧本。

    1997年《新人生》一书的出版在土耳其造成轰动，成为土耳其历史上销售速度最快的书籍。

    1998年《我的名字叫红》出版，这本书确定了他在国际文坛上的的文学地位；获得2003年都柏林文学奖，这个奖奖金高达10万欧元，是全世界奖金最高的文学奖，同时还赢得了法国文艺奖和意大利格林扎纳?卡佛文学奖。

    2002年作者发表小说《雪》。

    2005年作者的新作《伊斯坦布尔》被诺贝尔文学奖提名。同年获得德国书业和平奖。

    作者最近还获得了地中海外国文学奖和理查德?胡高奖。

    他的作品已被译成40多种语言出版。文学评论家把他和普鲁斯特、托马斯?曼、卡尔维诺、博尔赫斯、安伯托?艾柯等大师相提并论。