My brother asked me if I still use my Kindle much and I had to say at the moment I have been borrowing books from the library and this is such a library find. I have quite a mixed opinion of Pamuk. I often find his books a struggle to get through, only to then contemplate them for months and years after and really appreciate them.

Margaret, a fellow goodreader, read this in Turkish and commented on the different register of each narrator. I read this in translation and I am sad to say that this differentiation didn't survive the translation which was a pity.

The story takes place during a weekend in the summer. Three grandchildren visit their reclusive grandmother, their last surviving relative, who is attended to by Recep, a dwarf, in her crumbling old house. As the story develops it gets progressively darker.

Questions of good and evil; wrongdoings; religious versus secular morality; and most obviously Muslim East versus secular West play out throughout the book.