The Black Book

Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature

'Dazzling ... Turns the detective novel on its head.' Independent on Sunday

'Pamuk's masterpiece' Times Literary Supplement

A brilliantly unconventional mystery and a provocative meditation on the weight of history in modern Istanbul.


Galip's wife has disappeared. Could she have left him for Celál, a popular newspaper columnist? But Celál, too, seems to have vanished.


As Galip investigates, he gradually assumes the enviable Celal's identity, wearing his clothes, answering his phone calls, even writing his columns. But despite pursuing every clue the nature of the mystery keeps changing, and Galip never feels himself to be any closer to finding his beloved Ruya. When he receives a death threat, he begins to fear the worst . . .