Night of Plague

Nights of Plague is the latest novel by Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature; the Chinese edition was published by Shanghai People's Publishing House in 2022. The work continues Pamuk's characteristic narrative ambition and historical depth, setting the story in 1901 on a fictional island of the Ottoman Empire, Mingher. A sudden outbreak of bubonic plague shatters the island's tranquility and tears open the layered curtains of society, politics, and faith in the empire's final years. With his signature delicate touch, Pamuk weaves a multi-stranded narrative network of death, fear, quarantine, conspiracy, and love. This is not merely a historical novel or a plague allegory but a profound exploration of the nature of power, the clash of Eastern and Western civilizations, the predicaments of modernity, and the meaning of individual existence under extreme conditions. The novel is intricately structured and rich in detail, filled with Pamuk's lingering nostalgia and reflection on his native Istanbul and Ottoman history. For readers familiar with Pamuk, it reveals a fusion and elevation of the suspenseful narration of My Name Is Red, the emotional intensity of The Museum of Innocence, and the political metaphor of Snow; for new readers, it is a weighty and captivating entry into Pamuk's literary world. Reading this book while the pandemic has not yet receded can evoke resonance and warning across time and space.