The Black Book

by Orhan Pamuk

First published 1990

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3.9(13,808)

On a winter day in Istanbul, lawyer Galip discovers that his wife Rüya has disappeared. He suspects that she has left with her half-brother Celâl, a celebrated newspaper columnist who has also vanished. Galip searches apartments, shops, nightclubs and underground collections while rereading Celâl’s columns for signs that might reveal where the two have gone.

The investigation becomes increasingly uncertain as Galip occupies Celâl’s apartment, clothing and public voice. Stories of Ottoman mystics, mannequins, doubles and secret meanings transform the modern city into a labyrinth in which identity can be borrowed or fabricated. The novel’s disappearance mystery is contemporary rather than a historical case, but its Istanbul is saturated with the narratives of earlier empires and lives.