We read historical fiction to be able to go into history through the eyes of imaginary persons. We are charmed, probably thinking this Pamuk is a hard worker and he probably researched all the details. The details of collapse of Ottoman bureaucracy is perhaps true, but then let's also enjoy his imagination. This is my ideal reader, by the way.
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Turkish novelist and Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk sits down with Merve Emre, distinguished Writer-in-Residence at Wesleyan University and literary critic for The New Yorker. Together they discuss his latest novel, Nights of Plague, as well as other feats of historical fiction, including works by Tolstoy and Arthur Conan Doyle, and how they help us, the reader, empathise with great unknowns.
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