Posted on November 17, 2021 at 12:44 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
A Turkish Nobel laureate is back under investigation in his native land, over his latest novel.
Orhan Pamuk’s book Nights of Plague came out in March, and a month later, a lawyer accused the author of insulting the founder of modern Turkey and the country’s flag in the work, reports the Guardian.
A court declined to take the case forward, but the lawyer appealed that decision, which was overturned.
Pamuk denied the charges — which carry a penalty of up to three years in prison — in a statement, saying that on the contrary, Nights of Plague “was written with respect and admiration for these libertarian and heroic leaders.”
It’s not the novelist’s first clash with authorities in Turkey, which PEN America says jailed the third-highest number of writers globally in 2020.
Charges of “insulting Turkishness” against Pamuk were raised previously but dropped in 2006, the same year he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
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Categories: Today in Books