Turkish literature special from Istanbul featuring Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk

As part of Radio 4's Reading Europe season, Kirsty Lang explores Turkish literature in Istanbul, talking to leading writers including Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk.

Critics Kaya Genc and Nagihan Ibn Haliloglu discuss how the Turkish literary scene compares to our own: what are the bestselling books, and how are writers dealing with the current political situation, given Turkey has imprisoned more writers recently than any other country.

Orhan Pamuk on his latest novel The Red-Haired Woman (Radio 4's current Book at Bedtime), and its themes of authoritarianism and the clash between the old and new Turkeys.

Since being sacked from her job as one of Turkey's most-read newspaper columnists because of her political views, Ece Temelkuran has concentrated on her career as a novelist, including writing the bestselling Women Who Blow on Knots.

Burhan Sönmez, the prize-winning Kurdish writer whose latest novel Istanbul, Istanbul, inspired by his own experience of torture and imprisonment, is about four political prisoners who tell each other magical stories about Istanbul.

Why has a little known love story written in 1940 recently topped the Turkish bestseller charts? Filiz Ali talks about her father Sabahattin Ali, who was murdered in 1948 but whose novel Madonna in a Fur Coat has become a publishing phenomenon.

The books discussed in our programme are:

The Red-Haired Woman, written by Orhan Pamuk and translated by Ekin Oklap Istanbul, Istanbul, written by Burhan Sönmez and translated by Ümit Hussein. Women Who Blow on Knots, written by Ece Temelkuran and translated by Alexander Dawe. Madonna in a Fur Coat, written by Sabahattin Ali and translated by Maureen Freely and Alexander Dawe. The Stone Building and Other Places, written by Asli Erdogan and translated by Sevinç Türkkan.

Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Timothy Prosser.