"At once a fiendishly devious mystery, a beguiling love story, and a brilliant symposium on the power of art, My Name Is Red (2002) is a transporting tale set amid the splendor and religious intrigue of sixteenth-century Istanbul, from one of the most prominent contemporary Turkish writers.
The Sultan has commissioned a cadre of the most acclaimed artists in the land to create a great book celebrating the glories of his realm. Their task: to illuminate the work in the European style. But because figurative art can be deemed an affront to Islam, this commission is a dangerous proposition indeed.
Part fantasy and part philosophical puzzle, My Name is Red is a kaleidoscopic journey to the intersection of art, religion, love, sex and power."(publisher)
First chapter:
I Am a Corpse
I am nothing but a corpse now, a body at the bottom of a well. Though I drew my last breath long ago and my heart has stopped beating, no one, apart from that vile murderer, knows what's happened to me. As for that wretch, he felt for my pulse and listened for my breath to be sure I was dead, then he kicked me in the midriff, carried me to the edge of the well, raised me up and dropped me below....
for nearly four days I've been missing. My wife and children must be searching for me: my daughter, spent from crying, must be staring fretfully at the courtyard gate. Yes, I know they are all at the window, hoping for my return.
I am listening to this as an audiobook, which has a pretty good narrator.
MEME: Every Tuesday Bibliophile by the Sea hosts First Chapter First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros sharing the first paragraph or two, from a book you are reading or will be reading soon.
by Orhan Pamuk (2006) is a detective novel and also a work of philosophy about Turkish identity, according to Sinan, the son of Inspector Cetin Ikmen, the main character in Barbara Nadel's mystery novel, 
, and set in the 19th century during the conflict between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. It's described as more of a war novel and romance than crime fiction.
(2008) by Judith Reynolds, a book about a woman and her Turkish fiance who visit Turkey but tell his family they are already married. 
with Keanu Reeves, who pretends to be the husband of a Mexican farmer's daughter.
