"Seeing through the snow
Azade Seyhan* examines the achievements of Orhan Pamuk, winner of this year's Nobel Prize for Literature
Yashar Kemal, one of the most prolific names in modern Turkish literature, had been a perpetual contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Kemal had taken the Turkish novel beyond Istanbul's metropolitan centre, interwoven its texture with Anatolian ballads, legends, songs and colours and developed a poetic prose of epic grandeur. Yet the coveted prize eluded him. After a lot of speculation on part of the Turkish literati and press it was Orhan Pamuk who finally became the first Turkish Nobel laureate. Pamuk is also the first writer to be recognised from a predominantly Muslim country since 1988, when Egypt's Naguib Mahfouz, who died on 30 August, 2006, was awarded the Noble Prize by the Swedish Academy for his richly nuanced work that lent Arabic narrative a revolutionary energy."
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