At a family wedding Mevlut catches sight of a girl with whom he falls in love. After a secret courtship of letters passed via his cousin, she agrees to elope with him. As they rush to catch a train to Istanbul, Mevlut realises he has been misled. But the die is cast, and the situation will determine the rest of his days.

A mesmerizing love story with a cast of beguiling characters, from the Nobel prizewinning author Orhan Pamuk

Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature

'A magnificent novel.' Wall Street Journal
'Powerful and moving.' TLS 'Books of the Year'
'Prepare to fall in love' Mail on Sunday
'As head-exploding as War and Peace, and more comforting' Elif Batuman

As a child, Mevlut always felt like he was missing out. When he moves to Istanbul - 'the centre of the world' - he is immediately enthralled. He wanders through its alleys for forty years, working as a street vendor and gaining a unique perspective of a radically changing city.

Mevlut watches his friends and relatives settle down and make their fortunes, while he stumbles toward middle age in a series of jobs leading nowhere. He never manages to shake the 'strangeness in his mind', until at last fortune conspires to let him understand what it is he yearns for . . .