Agence France Presse — English
October 13, 2006 Friday

Nobel prize boosts demand for Pamuk’s books

Orhan Pamuk’s publishers in Turkey said Friday they were receiving a
flood of orders for his books after the 54-year-old dissident author
won the 2006 Nobel Literature Prize.

"In the four hours between the announcement of the Swedish academy
and the end of office hours Thursday, we sent out 6,000 of Pamuk’s
books from our warehouse," Bahar Siber, an editor at Iletisim
Publishing, told AFP.

Iletisim publishes nine of the 10 books Pamuk has written so far,
including his first novel "Cevdet Bey and His Sons", and "The Silent
House", "The White Castle" and "The Black Book", all of which have
won him awards at home or abroad.

"We have been receiving a lot of orders, mainly from Istanbul and
other major cities, but also quite a few from other parts of the
country," Siber said, adding that the company’s printing house was
working non-stop to meet the demand.

Yapi Kredi Publishing, which publishes Pamuk’s newest novel
"Istanbul", said they had also started re-printing the book on
Friday.

"We are getting a lot of orders from major bookstores which appear to
be a measure against failing to satisfy possible customer demand,"
Onur Cici, the head of the sales and marketing department, told AFP.

Pamuk became the first Turkish laureate of the Nobel Literature Prize
Thursday when the Swedish academy chose to honour him for a body of
work that probes the crossroads of Muslim and Western cultures.

He is Turkey’s best-known author at home and abraod but also a
political dissident who has often clashed with the establishment on
sensitive issues such as Ankara’s treatment of its Kurdish community
and the World War I massacres of the Armenians.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress