The Red-Haired Woman

STATED FIRST EDITION- " Many Years Have Now Gone By, And Jealousy Compels Me To Keep Her Name A Secret, Even From My Readers. But I Must Provide A Full And Truthful Account Of What Happened." It Is Mid-1980S Istanbul And Master Mahmut And His Apprentice Use Ancient Methods To Dig Wells - They Are Desperate To Find Water In A Barren Land. This Is The Tale Of Their Struggle, But It Is Also A Deeper Investigation - Through Mesmerising Stories And Images - Into Pamuk's Prevailing Themes: Fathers And Sons, The State And Individual Freedom, Reading And Seeing. It Is Also A Richly Literary Work: The Red-Haired Woman Borrows From The Tradition Of The French Conte Philosophique And Asks Probing Questions Of Ethics And Of The Role Of Art In Our Lives. It Is Both A Short, Realist Text Investigating A Murder Which Took Place Thirty Years Ago Near Istanbul - And A Fictional Inquiry Into The Literary Foundations Of Civilizations, Comparing Two Fundamental Myths Of The West And The East Respectively: Sophocles's Oedipus Rex (A Story Of Patricide) And Ferdowsi's Tale Of Rostam And Sohrab (A Story Of Filicide). The Red-Haired Woman Is A Masterful And Mesmerizing Work Which Further Confirms Orhan Pamuk As One Of Our Greatest Novelists."