It is Pamuk's rendering of the intense life of artists negotiating the devilishly sharp edge of Islam 1,000 years after its brith that elevatesMy Name is Redto the rank of modern classic.

'It is neither passion nor homicide that makes Pamuk's latest,My Name is Red, the rich and essential book that it is. Translated from the Turkish by Erda M Göknar Part fantasy and part philosophical puzzle, My Name is Red is a kaleidoscopic journey to the intersection of art, religion, love, sex and power. The only clue to the mystery-or crime?-lies in the half-finished illuminations themselves. The ruling elite therefore mustn't know the full scope or nature of the project, and panic erupts when one of the chosen miniaturists disappears. But because figurative art can be deemed an affront to Islam, this commission is a dangerous proposition indeed.

Their task: to illuminate the work in the European style. The Sultan has commissioned a cadre of the most acclaimed artists in the land to create a great book celebrating the glories of his realm. rich and essential' ( Los Angeles Times Book Review )-s et amid the splendor and religious intrigue of sixteenth-century Istanbul. The Nobel Prize winner and one of today's most prominent contemporary Turkish writers delivers a novel that is a fiendishly devious mystery, a beguiling love story, a brilliant symposium on the power of art, and a 'modern classic.

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