THE BLACK BOOK

New York City, NY: Vintage Books, 2006. First Edition. First Printing.. Softcover. Fine/No Dust Jacket, As Issued.. New York City, NY: Vintage Books, 2006. Softcover. Fine/None, As Issued. First Edition/First Printing. 466 pages. The author's second novel to be translated into English, presented in a New Translation. One of the greatest novels of the last decade of the 20th century. Uncorrected Proof. The first appearance in English and in the United States. Precedes and should not be confused with the Vintage softcover trade edition. Pictorial softcovers with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Text by Orhan Pamuk. Without DJ, as issued. Presents Orhan Pamuk's "The Black Book" in a felicitous new translation, the second one. His great novel, with an Afterword by Maureen Freely. The first English translation (by Guneli Gun) was published in 1994 to enormous critical acclaim. This new translation will inevitably be compared to the latter, and represents a unique opportunity to compare two "same-generation" translations for lovers and collectors of Orhan Pamuk's work. An elaborate and darkly comic meditation on identity, the novel is steeped in the scents and sights of his beloved Istanbul. It is ostensibly a mystery/thriller novel, but as with Borges and Calvino, the genre is just the starting point for Pamuk's highly original evocation of what "East meets West" really means. Pamuk's books are censored and often banned outright in his native Turkey, a culture that has to strike a delicate balance between (Eastern) Islam and (Western) secularism. The threat to one's freedom makes writing even more urgent and turns talented writers into great ones. His most passionate critic/admirer in America, the late great novelist John Updike, chose "Snow" as the best novel of the year 2004, bar none. "Pamuk in his dispassionate intelligence and arabesques of introspection suggests Proust" (John Updike). "He has enlarged the roots of the contemporary novel through his links to both Western and Eastern culture. This means that he has stolen the novel, one can say, from us Westerners, and has transformed it into something different from what we have ever seen before" (Horace Engdahl, Nobel Prize Committee). An absolute "must-have" title for Orhan Pamuk collectors. This title is a great book. This is one of few copies of the Uncorrected Proof still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare copy thus. Winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2003 for "My Name Is Red". Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006, the first Turkish writer to be so deservedly honored. One of the greatest writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER ORHAN PAMUK TITLES IN OUR CATALOG).