Атым – Қызыл

1998 Turkish novel by Orhan Pamuk

My Name Is Red (Benim Adım Kırmızı) 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. 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. 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.

My Name Is Red received favourable reviews when published in English. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly admires the novel's " jeweled prose and alluring digressions, nesting stories within stories" and concludes that Pamuk will gain many new readers with this " accessible, charming and intellectually satisfying, narrative." A Kirkus Reviews critic describes the novel as " a whimsical but provocative exploration of the nature of art in an Islamic society. . A rich feast of ideas, images, and lore." Jonathan Levi, writing in the L. A. Times Book Review, comments that " it is Pamuk’s rendering of the intense life of artists negotiating the devilishly sharp edge of Islam 1,000 years after its birth that elevates My Name Is Red to the rank of modern classic." Levi also notes that the novel, although set four hundred years ago, reflects modern societal tensions. For this reason he calls it " a novel of our time.’’

In The New York Times, Richard Eder describes Pamuk's intense interest in East West interactions and explains some of the metaphysical ideas that permeate the novel. He also comments that the novel is not just about ideas: "Eastern or Western, good or bad, ideas precipitate once they sink to human level, unleashing passions and violence. ‘Red’ is chockfull of sublimity and sin." Eder also praises the characterization of Shekure, which he regards as the finest in the book. She is " elusive, changeable, enigmatic and immensely beguiling." Eder concludes: "They (readers) will . be lofted by the paradoxical lightness and gaiety of the writing, by the wonderfully winding talk perpetually about to turn a corner, and by the stubborn humanity in the characters’ maneuvers to survive. It is a humanity whose lies and silences emerge as endearing and oddly bracing individual truths".

Erdağ M. Göknar's translation of My Name Is Red gained Pamuk international recognition and contributed to his selection as Nobel laureate; upon publication, Pamuk was described as a serious Nobel contender. The translation received praise from many reviewers including John Updike in The New Yorker: "Erdağ M. Göknar deserves praise for the cool, smooth English in which he has rendered Pamuk's finespun sentences, passionate art appreciations, sly pedantic debates, (and) eerie urban scenes." Many readers and critics consider My Name Is Red to be Pamuk's best work in English translation. It won the International Dublin Literary Award in Dublin in 2003, where Göknar accepted the award on behalf of Pamuk. As is customary with this award, Göknar received a quarter share of the prize. A recent study examined the faithfulness of the novel's translations using quantitative methods.