The Museum of Innocence
by Orhan Pamuk's. "Please give this a try, and don't listen to Virginia complaining that it is sad. By the Nobel Prize winner, and author of Snow
, it is sad, but it is astonishing." (Ed: Yes, I did say it was too sad. Of course, I hadn’t actually READ it, just read ABOUT it.) From Amazon: It is 1975, a perfect spring in Istanbul. Kemal and Sibel, children of two prominent families, are about to become engaged. But when Kemal encounters Füsun, a beautiful shopgirl and a distant relation, he becomes enthralled. And once they violate the code of virginity, a rift begins to open between Kemal and the world of the Westernized Istanbul bourgeoisie. In his pursuit of Füsun over the next eight years, Kemal becomes a compulsive collector of objects that chronicle his lovelorn progress—amassing a museum that is both a map of a society and of his heart. Orhan Pamuk’s first novel since winning the Nobel Prize is a stirring exploration of the nature of romance.
