My Name Is Red () is a 1998 Turkish novel by writer Orhan Pamuk translated into English by Erdağ Göknar in 2001. The novel, concerning miniaturists in the Ottoman Empire of 1591, established Pamuk's international reputation and contributed to his reception of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006.
The book has been translated into more than 60 languages since publication. The French translation won the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger and the Italian version the Premio Grinzane Cavour in 2002. The English translation, My Name Is Red, won the International Dublin Literary Award in 2003.
In recognition of its status in Pamuk's oeuvre, the novel was re-published in Erdağ Göknar's translation as part of the Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics series in 2010. BBC Radio 4 broadcast an adaptation of the novel in 2008.
Outline
Several of the major characters in the novel belong to the same workshop of miniaturists in the Ottoman Empire during the reign of Murat III. The first chapter of the novel ("I am a corpse") is narrated by one of the workshop's illuminators (Elegant Effendi) who has just been murdered. In the chapters narrated by his murderer, the reader learns that this illuminator was concerned about the increasingly Western attitude towards painting in a project commissioned by the Sultan.
Subsequent chapters are narrated by different characters - - including four living members of the Sultan's workshop, a man named Black who has just returned to his uncle's home in Istanbul after 12 years of travel and who is the first living character to narrate the novel - -, by several drawings (the archetype of a horse, a dog, a counterfeit gold coin, Satan, and two dervishes); and one chapter, which gives the novel its name, is narrated by the color red. In all, there are 21 different narrators.
Enishte Effendi, the maternal uncle of the main character (Black), is reading the Book of the Soul by Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya, a Sunni commentator on the Qur'an, and continuous references to it are made throughout the book. Al-Jawziyya argues, in the same fashion as Islamic doctrine, that the souls of the dead remain on earth and can hear the living.
For some of the miniaturists, in particular the head of the Sultan's workshop Master Osman, viewing miniatures or "perfected art" is less a way of seeing than a way of knowing the eternal. The many stories of master painters going blind at the end of their careers is thus presented less as an infirmity than as a consecration.
Like the drawings that narrate their stories, Shekure -- Black's widowed cousin and romantic interest -- is a narrator aware she is being read—"...just like those beautiful women with one eye on the life within the book and one eye on the life outside, I, too, long to speak with you who are observing me from who knows which distant time and place." The murderer, too, often reminds the reader he is self-conscious that what he says is being scrutinized for clues as to his identity.
Characters
Elegant Effendi, murdered miniaturist who speaks from the afterlife to the reader in the opening chapter. Kara (Black), miniaturist and binder. Recently returned from 12 years away in Persia. Nephew of Enishte ("Uncle"). Enishte Effendi, maternal uncle of Black, who is in charge of the creation of a secret book for the Sultan in the style of the Venetian painters. Shekure, Enishte's beautiful daughter with whom Black is in love; Shekure (related to English 'sugar' refers to Shirin, meaning 'sweet', also the name of Pamuk's mother). Shevket, Shekure's older son (also the name of Orhan Pamuk's older brother). Orhan, Shekure's younger son (also Pamuk's first name). Hasan, the younger brother of Shekure's husband. Hayriye, slave girl in Enishte's household, Enishte's concubine. Master Osman, head of the Sultan's workshop of miniaturists. This character is based on Nakkaş Osman. Butterfly, one of three miniaturists suspected for the murders. Stork, one of three suspect miniaturists. Olive, one of three suspect miniaturists. This character is based on Veli Can Esther, a Jewish peddler, a matchmaker, carries lovers' letters. Nusret Hoja, a Conservative Muslim leader who may be based on an historical figure. Opposes coffee and coffeehouses, bawdy stories, and figurative paintings.