The Red-Haired Woman : Orhan PAMUK

Managed to squeeze-in-a-read on our trip in Turkey.  How appropriate that it should be Orhan PAMUK's Red-Haired Woman.  I thoroughly enjoyed this story which reprised aspects of the Oedipus myth - the interplay of tensions between fathers and sons. The context of the novel is well-digging in a small town on the outskirts of Istanbul. The red-haired woman is a member of a travelling troup of actors who visit the town. She becomes the object of our narrator's attention. There is a connection with the father.

A terrible accident occurs and there follows decades of repressed guilt... and an unexpected denouement. 

The story definitely kept my interest and the final pages definitely caught me off guard. Reading those I simply had to go back and restart the novel. Really?  Check it out - you'll get my drift.

It was fascinating to read a novel in situ - travelling through parts of Istanbul mentioned in the story. I finished it while there but I didn't take the book home with me, passing it on to to a fellow traveller who would be staying longer in the city. I wonder did he manage to finish it.  Leave it there?

Before parting with the book I scribbled my email address inside the back cover. 

I wonder where it is now.

A book set adrift - a bottle in a literary sea. Thousands of miles away. 

Will its ripples reach back?

 

The Lost Bookshop - Evie Woods

 

Wasn't able to make this event - abroad on travels - but have read the book which I much enjoyed.

Anyone out there attend? Reaction?

What a great idea.

October 2025 Reads

 

I am plannig to read these four books this month. 

My Name Is Red. Orhan PAMUK

The heftiest by far is Orhan PAMUK's My Name Is Red published in 2001 by Faber&Faber.  We are holidaying in Turkey soon and as I like to read literature from the country I am visiting I thought this would hit the spot. Mind you, I'll have to be mindful of baggage allowances and so perhaps an e-version or audiobook might be more practical for carrying around.

Here's some info on the book from Faber&Faber

This train is for.  Bernie McGill

It's Book Week NI later this month and local writer Bernie McGill will be sharing some readings and reflections at Suffolk Library where I attend a monthly reading group.  I've already started this one having picked it up at the library last week. The book, a collection of short stories, was published by No Alibis Press in 2022. Here's some details from the publisher and information from the author herself here.

There are plenty of events on for book week so why not check out librariesni.org.uk for details?

No et moi. Delphine de VIGAN

This is my French read for October. It has been selected for discussion by our French circle. It was chosen because a previous meeting had considered the author's Les Enfants Sont Rois which generated plenty of comments.  No et moi has been translated into English, is offered as an audiobook and has been made into a film. I tend to read my French titles as ebooks.  The reader offers the possibility of immediate translation and as often as not I find I have to look up clarifications of geographical or historical references. 
Here are some details from Goodreads.

and finally

Written on the body.  Jeanette Winterson

Carrying on the library connection this is one I ordered a while back and which has eventually arrived. I had read a review of it some time ago and felt I had to read it. The author is one of my heroes - I follow her pieces on Substack which I find challenging.  A way with words!  

Check out some information on the title from Penguin here.

Looking forward to getting lost in these pages. 

Happy reading!