Orhan Pamuk · 1998 · thriller

Nine snowy days in Istanbul in 1591. The Sultan has secretly commissioned a book illustrated in the European manner, one of the miniaturists working on it has been murdered, and a man back from twelve years in Persia has a week to find out which of his uncle's artists did it - in a novel narrated by corpses, dogs, coins and the colour red.

1. 1
   Venice

   Enishte Effendi goes as the Sultan's envoy and sees Venetian portraits - men painted as themselves, from one man's viewpoint, with shadows - and comes home carrying an idea that will get people killed.

2. 2
   Istanbul

   His house in the old city, and a book commissioned in secret by Murad III to be illustrated in the Frankish manner - a gift for Western diplomats, and blasphemy to anyone who hears about it.

3. 3
   Tabriz

   Black spends twelve years in Safavid Persia after being sent away for loving his cousin - producing books for pashas, serving as a treasurer's clerk, and watching the wars he writes a history of.

4. 4
   Eminonu

   He lands back in Istanbul at thirty-six on a snowy day in 1591 at his uncle's invitation - still in love with Shekure, who is now a widow with two sons and no intention of making anything easy.

5. 5
   The well

   Where Elegant Effendi is lying, and where the novel begins - a corpse narrating its own murder in chapter one, before anyone in the city has noticed that a gilder is missing.

6. 6
   The coffeehouse

   Where a storyteller performs each night in the voice of whatever is pinned up behind him - a dog, a tree, a gold coin, the colour red - which is the novel's own method, and which gets the place burnt down.

7. 7
   Topkapi Palace

   Master Osman and Black shut into the Imperial Treasury for three days with the sultans' books, hunting one miniaturist's hand among thousands of pages - and Osman finding what he is looking for and blinding himself with a needle.