I would like to read a Turkish novel and wondered where to start? What are the "classics" of Turkish literature?

...ehm, I have no idea of what is seen as classic litterature , but I can recommend you to read books by Yaşar Kemal and Orhan Pamuk. Check this link.

...as I understand it Yaşar Kemal is a must...at least in Sweden his books are the first you would get from a librarian if you asked for turkish literature...and after his books you would probably get the most famous author at the present...which would be Orhan Pamuk. But then again...this is just my narrowminded swedish perspective.

hey dear if u can find yasar kemal...his book INCE MEHMET my favourite and translated into more than 20 languages...im sure u can find it..it tell how turkish ppl feel ,how they behaves and what we have lives in the first years of republic..the conflict of the time between ottomans and republic...the most beautiful side of the book is that,it takes places in cukurova(adana,mersin,tarsus,ceyhan,seyhan,osmaniye)...great book....orhan pamuk? i never read him and i dont think i ll...bcos i tried few times and i have never seen such kind of wasted words in a sentence..he is just the media's hero...i read 1/4 of the book and it consist nothing...actually i also dont like him bcos he is a politic writer..a writer should be literal more than politic..he should enlighten us instead of pushing us into darkness....anyway..eanough?

Hehehehe! Thank you!

i think everybody should read these books...just do it

Araba Sevdası by recaizade mahmud ekrem

sir Bihruz starts to live a luxurious and wasteful life after his fathers death..with his beautiful carriage he has short trips and meets with a very beautiful woman and he has some advetures that is hard to believe in this era with that woman...it makes great sense about how the western culture erouse the turkish culture..and how it changes slowly...an unelivable ,beautiful book that can u finish in one breath

Slow down!!! I haven't read the other books I ordered yet! Offf so many books...so little time

calikusu by resat nuri guntekin

it tells Feride's love story who is a light for the ppl around her,who is a teacher but at the same time afraid of love...but love never gives her peace...another classic...it leaves a sweet taste after u have finished it...

This is a great topic. I just finished Yasar Kemal's Memet my Hawk and now want to read more of his work. I also just finished Orhan Pamuk's Snow, My Name is Red and am now reading New Life. It is good to read authors from different regions. I'd like to read more contemporary Turkish authors and am happy this topic is going.Hopefully it will continue.

Column metres have been written about My Name Is Red for sure but I thought it wouldn’t harm if I added a couple of lines from my own personal experience.

My Name Is Red is basically a whodunit. The reader knows from the very beginning that the murderer is one of three people. Each one of them had the chance  -  we are not checking alibis here  -  but the question is who had the ideology and the guts. It is basically about artistic views and religion, a fight between traditional Persian miniature art and Western style which is faithful to what human eyes can see. Islamic prohibition of pictures reluctantly admitted the miniature art which looked at the world from the level of minarets but strictly banned portrets and the artist’s individualistic style.

My Name Is Red is a historical novel. The events take place in the 17^th century Istanbul and the writer certainly has investigated the backgrouds in an admirable way and succeeds in blowing life to Istanbul streets and suburbs of those days. But in my opinion what makes Pamuk´s work a great novel is not only that. My Name Is Red grows out of its time limits and describes human nature and life of societies as they are in every period of history. For instance, religious extremists are not a modern phenomenon, they always existed.

My Name Is Red is a psychological and a feministic novel. For me, its most interesting character is Şeküre, the beautiful daughter of a miniaturist master, the wife of a husband lost in endless Ottoman wars in the East and the mother of two boys. Şeküre never has the chance to follow her true feelings, she has to calculate very carefully which one of her admirers to encourage. She actually only loves her sons. This love and protection is described beatifully, even the physical side of it: Şeküre always sleeps with her children, enjoys their smels, sounds and wet kisses.  -  How very surprising it is that mothers in those dark and violent times loved their children just like we do!

But above all, My Name Is Red is a novel about art. The person who has read it will look at Ottoman miniature art with different eyes  -  even if he never before was really interested in it.