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From a Turkish writer who has been compared with Borges, Nabokov, and DeLillo comes a dazzling novel that is at once a captivating work of historical fiction and a sinuous treatise on the enigma of identity and the relations between East and West. In the 17th century, a young Italian scholar sailing from Venice to Naples is taken prisoner and delivered to Constantinople. There he falls into the custody of a scholar known as Hoja--"master"--a man who is his exact double. In the years that follow, the slave instructs his master in Western science and technology, from medicine to pyrotechnics. But Hoja wants to know more: why he and his captive are the persons they are and whether, given knowledge of each other's most intimate secrets, they could actually exchange identities. Set in a world of magnificent scholarship and terrifying savagery, The White Castle is a colorful and intricately patterned triumph of the imagination. Translated from the Turkish by Victoria Holbrook.… (more)
Alternately fascinating and frustrating. A plethora of interesting ideas and situations, but a plot that ultimately circles and never seems to go anywhere. I found myself skimming the last couple of chapters, eager to get to the end and move on. This is undoubtedly someone's cup of tea, but it definitely isn't mine. ( )
I did not enjoy this book at all. Perhaps I misunderstood what it was to be about, but I expected to learn what it was like for an Italian slave in 17th century Turkey. Instead, it was a slow-moving psychological story. ( )
I have to say, I'm pretty sure a bit of this went over my head. Or maybe that's how it's supposed to be? After all, if we can never be quite sure that we are who we are, shouldn't we feel a bit confused at the end? ( )
To imagine that a person who intrigues us has access to a way of life unknown and all the more attractive for its mystery, to believe that we will begin to live only through the love of that person – what else is this but the birth of great passion?
– Marcel Proust, from the mistranslation of Y. K. Karaosmanoglu
Dedication
For Nilgun Darvinoglu a loving sister (1961–1980)
First words
We were sailing from Venice to Naples when the Turkish fleet appeared.
I found this manuscript in 1982 in that forgotten 'archive' attached to the governor's office in Gebze that I used to rummage through for a week each summer, at the bottom of a dusty chest stuffed to overflowing with imperial decrees, title deeds, court registers and tax rolls. (Preface)
Quotations
Last words
A swing tied with long ropes to a high branch of a walnut-tree swayed slightly in a barely perceptible breeze.
From a Turkish writer who has been compared with Borges, Nabokov, and DeLillo comes a dazzling novel that is at once a captivating work of historical fiction and a sinuous treatise on the enigma of identity and the relations between East and West. In the 17th century, a young Italian scholar sailing from Venice to Naples is taken prisoner and delivered to Constantinople. There he falls into the custody of a scholar known as Hoja--"master"--a man who is his exact double. In the years that follow, the slave instructs his master in Western science and technology, from medicine to pyrotechnics. But Hoja wants to know more: why he and his captive are the persons they are and whether, given knowledge of each other's most intimate secrets, they could actually exchange identities. Set in a world of magnificent scholarship and terrifying savagery, The White Castle is a colorful and intricately patterned triumph of the imagination. Translated from the Turkish by Victoria Holbrook.