Written by Brenda Nicholas

Nobel laureate Orham Pamuk was the target of a dangerous, nonfiction plot extending beyond the safe confines of a closed book. Thirteen people were arrested in connection with a Turkish ultra-nationalist gang suspected of plotting to kill Pamuk.

Why would an author be the target of nationalist rage that could have resulted in murder? Ironically it has to do with the delicate balance Turkey is currently facing as a nation, and Pamuk captured in his book “The White Castle.” Even as Turkey inches toward modernity, striving to join the European Union, it is still a largely conservative and traditional nation. The East /West clash has spilled into every corner of Turkey’s political and cultural terrain.

Pamuk was prosecuted in Turkey under Article 301, a law that makes insulting “Turkishness” a crime. Turkey’s government plans to amend the law, easing up on the penalties, a decision that enrages extremist groups desperate enough to turn to violence to clutch onto their traditional ways.

Pamuk won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, described as a man
"who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures"

The White Castle , by Orhan Pamuk

Read more about Pamuk here.