turkish literature

If we can share our joys within us without longing, if we can secretly divide our troubles without joy, if we can tell each other the truth by risking being the bad person, so that we can protect each other from wrongs, if we can draw the fine line of respect with sincerity, if we can accept each other as we are without judging each other, then we have a friendship worth the world. Such a friendship that we give as much as we receive, from childhood to death, is the greatest wealth that human beings can acquire, the greatest gift one can give oneself.

Relates historical events to the literature and poetry that was written because the event happened. Contains a side-by-side chronology of events and the event-inspired literature from the year 5000 B.C.E. to 2000 A.D.

A collection of over seventy essays in which Nobel Prize-winning Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk comments on his life, influences, work, and environment.