Orhan Pamuk and the Ottoman Empire

Available for over a year

A pandemic, crumbling empire and new nationhood are the backdrop for Orhan Pamuk's latest novel Nights of the Plague. He talks to Rana Mitter about the historical basis for his novel. They're joined by historian and BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker Michael Talbot and literary scholar Keya Anjaria. Some of the books they recommend at the end of the conversation are Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar (1901 – 1962) whose The Time Regulation Institute and A Mind at Peace have been published in English by Penguin Halide Edib Adıvar (1884 – 1964) whose memoirs have been published in English Yasher Kemal (1923 – 2015) author of Mehmet My Hawk Orhan Kemal - the pen name of Turkish novelist Mehmet Raşit Öğütçü (1914 - 1970) whose books describe the life of the poor in Turkey Oğuz Atay (1934 - 1977) a pioneer of the modern novel whose The Disconnected has become a best-seller Latife Tekin (1957 - ) and the film-maker Yılmaz Güney (1937 - 1984) Producer Luke Mulhall You can find more conversations about Turkish history on the Free Thinking website list of past programmes: Michael Talbot discussed aspects of the Ottoman empire with Alev Scott https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000qj7 Orhan Pamuk compared notes with Edmund de Waal https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06cb0hz Jeremy Seal and Ecce Temelkuran discussed Adnam Menderes and populism https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000s9hq Elif Shafak discussed her novel 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in this Strange World https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00066qd