Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature

‘Engaging, brilliant’ Guardian

‘A talkative, tender meditation’ Financial Times

‘Every novelist will want to read this’ Daily Telegraph

What happens within us when we read a novel? And how does a writer create its unique effects? In this thoughtful and deeply personal book, Orhan Pamuk takes us into the worlds of the writer and reader, revealing their intimate connections.

How is it that novels conjure landscapes so vivid they can make the here-and-now fade away, and characters so complex we feel we know them beyond the page? With Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Stendhal, Flaubert and Proust as companions, Pamuk considers the ‘sweet illusion’ of the fictional world, and the hold it exerts upon us. Anyone who has known the pleasure of becoming immersed in a novel will enjoy, and learn from, this perceptive and enchanting book.