Fusun is from a more modest background, her mother is a seamstress and has worked for Kemal’s mother on several occasions. Kemal’s family are wealthy and part of Istanbul’s elite society. He is actually shopping for his girlfriend at the time. The tale begins when Kemal meets Fusun when she is working in a fashionable boutique in a stylish part of Istanbul. The story of a romance between Kemal and Fusun. A cosmopolitan city of contrasts and shadows, spices and scents, balanced on the threshold of the oriental and exotic world of the east. This city was the terminus for the Simplon Orient Express train beloved by Agatha Christie and her archaeologist husband Max Mallowan. A city with thousands of years of history and several name changes too Byzantium, Constantinople and finally Istanbul. It is the place where, in geographical terms, Europe comes to an end and Asia begins. This is a place where two continents meet, a place where eastern and western cultures collide. To the west is the Mediterranean and to the east is the Black Sea. The currents in the Bosphorus are powerful and strong. A body of water that separates Europe from Asia. Istanbul sits on the shores of the Bosphorus. The novel ‘Museum of Innocence’ portrays a carefree life for the wealthy young socialites of Istanbul in the 60s and 70s and yet…. He writes about love and yearning and passion and social structures that cannot be breached. A city proud of its Turkish and Stambuli culture and traditions and yet at the same time a city that yearns to be ‘western’ and more open in its approach to modern life. He writes about growing up in a city of tradition and pride.

Orhan Pamuk writes about his city, the city of Istanbul, in a lyrical and poetic way. I was enthralled and engaged in a way that doesn’t happen very often. Each day I found myself compelled to sit down and read as much as I could. I’m actually quite sad that I’ve finished it. It is one of the most powerful novels I’ve read. I’ve just finishing reading Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence.

Author of the museum of innocence