In the initials few pages, the book reminds us of our childhood visit to Grandparent’s house during summertime. We used to get excited to relive my experiences. We get to meet your extended families, cousins; and while all are living together under one roof, you are off your responsibilities of study, school etc; and enjoy at fullest.

The Silent House by Orhan Pamuk starts with an old grandmother , living with her faithful servant Recep- a dwarf, also an illegitimate son of his husband, sitting at her dining table, enquires about the arrival of their grandchildren. She lives in an old mansion in Cennithisar, where she and her husband shifted during Turkey’s civil war, to escape the persecution under the new government. The grandchildren- Faruk- An alcoholic, divorced and failed historian, Nilgun- A revolutionary and the Youngest one Matin- a dreamer, who wants to escape the family to study in America, visits the village every year to pay respect to the graves of their deceased parents. Their lives get wrangled together with another protagonist Hasan- the nephew of Recep; a forced idealist/nationalist, who is in love with Nilgun, but due to his bad company of so-called nationalist, he does few things, which affects the lives of everyone.

I love the way each chapter is being narrated by different protagonists and yet the whole story converges so well. The uniqueness of each character will make you shift your emotions from chapters to chapter, and it won’t let you settle your emotions till the end. I didn’t find the single missing thread or unlinked storyline (except the one, I discussed below), which makes you feel like skipping that part. The whole story is woven around the characters and their converging life so well that it makes the whole book so easy to read.


What I don’t like: The character- Faruk’s story could have been explained in a better way. There were so many instances in his story, where I was looking for more explanation, but due to inadequacy, I felt few sentences or paragraphs as redundant.

Overall a wonderful and easy read. The book has so much to offer. So far, I have read quite a few Middle eastern authors like Elif shafak, Khaled Hosseini and Now Orhan Pamuk, and I loved them all.

This was an interesting stream of consciousness novel told from the perspective of several different voices. I found it confusing at the beginning, particularly since I was listening to an audiobook version, but after reading a synopsis, I was able to follow the story much better. The author does a good job getting into the mind of several different characters. I also found it interesting in terms of revealing aspects of Turkish history and culture I was not familiar with before.

Family drama in a coastal town in Turkey, with alternating chapters narrated by an aging matriarch, her visiting grandchildren, and her servant and his nationalist nephew who share a family connection to her late husband. A discursive yet insightful exploration of family ties and shared history, with an undercurrent of political tensions that leads to a dark turn at the end.

Not for me. I hate books with long stream-of-consciousness ramblings, that go on page after page with not even paragraphs to break them up. I couldn't get past the third chapter.

مگر نه این که کلمات ابری از صدا هستند و به محض پخش شدن هوا نابود می‌شوند؟

بله می‌دانم چرا نتوانستید پول دربیاورید، ترسوها! از زندگی ترسیده‌اید. جسارت نداشتید با فضیلتی که لازمه پولدار شدن است زندگی کنید، با پدرسوختگی.