The Red Haired Woman

Orhan Pamuk Faber & Faber €18.20 When a middle-class Turkish boy whose father has disappeared finds himself apprenticed to a master-digger, the stage is set for a richly layered novel in which father figures and real fathers are continually swapping places. The red-haired woman of the title is an exotic member of a touring theatrical troupe. Orhan Pamuk’s tale of love and death draws heavily on the Oedipus myth but such is his mastery of storytelling that every character feels fresh, while the vignettes of modern Turkey ring true.