The Red-Haired Woman

Orhan Pamuk The latest novel from Nobel Prizewinning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk delves into the complicated, sometimes tragic world of fathers and sons.

A young, bookish, apprentice begins to see a master well-digger as more of a father than his own, as they use ancient methods to dig a well on a plateau outside Istanbul.

The apprentice spends his days at the well and evenings visiting the nearby garrison town, where he becomes obsessed with a red-haired actress, in a coming-of-age summer that sets in train events that will have implications for the rest of his life. Woven into this story are ancient tales from the West and East. As it unfolds, the story appears to be marching towards an inevitable conclusion, but this tangled tale of family relationships has a dramatic twist. 7/10