May 1, 2022

In 1900, plague arrives on an imaginary island, belonging to the Ottoman Empire, that is split between Muslims and Orthodox Greeks. Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II first sends his top quarantine expert, an Orthodox Christian whose strict measures are flouted by some Muslims, then sends a Muslim doctor whose strict measures are flouted by local administrators. Blisteringly relevant writing from the Nobel Prize winner.

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 15, 2022
In the ambitious latest from Nobel Prize winner Pamuk (My Name Is Red), a plague has swept through Mingheria, a fictional island in the Ottoman Empire. The 1901 calamity was chronicled by Princess Pakize, whose letters historian Mina Mingher is preparing for publication in 2017. But struck by the princess’s “descriptive flair” and weary of writing another “dreary” history book, Mina decides to turn the letters into a novel. Indeed, there’s flair to Mina’s text, which forms the bulk of a narrative that includes the murder of Istanbul’s royal chemist, sent to the island to implement quarantine protocol; political upheaval that results in Mingheria declaring its independence; and romances among a slew of characters. Via Mina, a descendent of Mingherians, Pamuk ascribes importance to players from all social strata: politicians, religious leaders, and ordinary citizens alike. Though Mina’s romanticizing of her ancestors and her nation’s history can sometimes be overwrought, the story she shapes is consistently captivating. As a result, the grandiose statements—“emotions and decisions of individuals could often change the course of history”—wind up ringing true. Though it doesn’t stand with the author’s best work, the cracking narrative will keep readers in for the long haul. Agent: Sarah Chalfant, Wylie Agency.

September 1, 2022
Plague strikes a small Ottoman island in 1901. Nobel laureate Pamuk's latest novel is a behemoth: 700-some pages about a fictional island in the Mediterranean under siege by plague. Mingheria, in Pamuk's imagining, is populated by both Muslims and Orthodox Greeks, who react with varying levels of obedience to the strictures of quarantine. Set in 1901, the novel also takes on the dwindling of the Ottoman Empire and the tensions between West and East, modernity and tradition, and science and religion. There is a lot at play here, and while Pamuk's prose is as elegant and informed as ever, an occasional hint of pomposity does waft through his pages. Then, too, there is so much information to be conveyed that the burden sometimes falls to his characters, and dialogue becomes an unfortunate vehicle for exposition. So, for example, the young doctor who has been sent to Mingheria to help tells his wife, the former sultan's daughter, "Let me first tell you of the state the international quarantine establishment finds itself in." It's possible the novel is overdetermined. The frame for the narrative is as follows: Princess Pakize, that young doctor's wife, has been writing long letters about the events at hand to her sister, and, more than a hundred years later, M�na Mingher, a scholar, is narrating a novel based on those letters. On top of all that, there's a murder mystery at play. And yet, despite these flaws, Pamuk's storytelling is so compelling and coy; his intelligence and interests so wide-ranging; the project, as a whole, so ambitious, that the book has survived its own excesses. There is a great deal here to savor. Not quite a triumph, Pamuk's latest work still manages to delight.

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Starred review from September 15, 2022
The bubonic plague afflicts a remote outpost of the Ottoman empire, inflaming old tensions but also presenting an opportunity for radical political change. In the stormy Mediterranean, somewhere between Rhodes and Alexandria, lies Pamuk's imagined island, Mingheria, the "Pearl of the Levant." The Quarantine Authority has well-rehearsed protocols to limit the spread of disease (and squelch unhelpful news reports). But the Ottoman "sick man of Europe" is fading, and the illness that sweeps the land in 1901 is unusually cruel. The island's Greek and Muslim elders jostle for position. But the Sultan's investigator, Bonkowski Pasha, has been murdered under mysterious circumstances, and a new Mingherian nationalism is ascendant. For the patriotic Major Kamil and his young wife, Zehnap, history calls. Deftly blending rich realism and wry social commentary, Turkish Nobel laureate Pamuk (My Name Is Red, 2017) delivers an invented history that leverages the all-too-familiar experience of a deadly pandemic to return to one of his cherished topics: Ottoman bureaucratic and social reform. The continued volatility of the Turkish political environment and the potency of Pamuk's allegory were underscored when, upon this novel's Turkish publication in 2021, Pamuk faced a criminal inquiry for allegedly besmirching Turkey's founder, Ataturk. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Pamuk is always a must-read, and the potency and timeliness of this novel will stir even more interest.

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Starred review from October 1, 2022

Set mostly in the early 1900s on the imaginary Ottoman island of Mingheria, this effusively detailed and abundantly readable new work from Nobel Prize winner Pamuk deals with timely issues of plague and quarantine, nationalism and dissolution of empire. Princess Pakize, confined her whole life with her deposed sultan father, is traveling to China with her new husband, Prince Consort Doctor Nuri Bey, as part of an Ottoman delegation. When they stop at Mingheria, quarantine doctor Nuri rushes to help Bonkowski Pasha, the Sultan's Royal Chemist, when bubonic plague is discovered. With Bonkowski's murder, Nuri joins Governor Sami Pasha and native Mingherian major K�mil to enforce countermeasures even as warships from the Western powers circle to keep the pestilence in. While the island's Greek Orthodox community of mostly wealthy merchants generally accepts quarantine or flees, the Turkish Muslim community has fewer resources and, disastrously, resists the imposed Lysol-and-lime procedures. A murkily motivated attack on the government leads to an unexpected declaration of independence. The entire story is narrated by a descendant of Pakize and Nuri who considers herself Mingherian, but as Pamuk cannily reveals in an extended epilogue, nationalism does not necessarily mean freedom. VERDICT Big reading with contemporary import; highly recommended.

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.