The White Castle

　　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.

　　《白色城堡》是一名年輕威尼斯學者的故事，他在乘船從威尼斯航向那不勒斯的途中，遭到土耳其船隻攻擊，並且被俘虜送往伊斯坦堡。在此，他成為土耳其人何雅的奴隸。何雅外貌神似這名年輕義大利人，而且也受過高度教育──至少就其身處的時代與空間來說──他想要從這名義大利人身上瞭解有關西方的文學、科學與工藝等一切。

　　日子一久，這名威尼斯人與何雅愈來愈難以分辨，不是在於他們的外表，而是在於他們的思想與行動。他們合作為土耳其蘇丹進行了一連串的計畫，最後一項是研發一件用來對抗波蘭與其西方盟軍的戰爭武器。武器在圍攻與書名所稱的「白色城堡」時上陣，此時，兩人在城堡的身影底下，終於體會到，「多年來以為是巧合經歷的許多事，其實是不可避免的」。就在這個時候，奴隸與主人做了這件「命定」的事，而奧罕‧帕慕克也在這裡留下一道謎題，關於兩人身分的難解之謎……

　　《白色城堡》是一本充滿想像力的著作，探討了身分認同與文化差異的觀念，東方與西方的接觸，以及土耳其在世界版圖上有時顯然未知的部分。

本書一九九Ｏ年獲得美國外國小說獨立獎。中譯本《白色城堡》已由麥田出版。

作者介紹

　　Turkish Auther Orhan Pamuk wins the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is also the winner of the 2003 IMPAC Dubin Literary Awards for his novel, My Name Is Red. His work has been translated into more than twenty languages.

　　奧罕‧帕慕克為2006年諾貝爾文學獎得主。帕慕克出生於伊斯坦堡，曾旅居紐約三年，在伊斯坦堡科技大學主修建築、伊斯坦堡大學唸新聞研究所。自1974年開始寫作。1985年出版《白色城堡》後，享譽全球。作品翻譯成四十多國語言。《紐約時報》書評譽為「東方的新星」、楊澤：「小說界的成吉思汗」。支持魯西迪，認為小說家應有表達的自由（亞美尼亞人事件宣判無罪）。