The Museum of Innocence

A novel set in Istanbul from the 1970s onward. Kemal, a wealthy young man from a privileged family, is about to be engaged when he begins an affair with Füsun, a distant relative who is poor and much younger. Their relationship changes the course of his life and leads him to a long, obsessive devotion.

Kemal gathers objects connected with her, and the book becomes a portrait of love, memory and longing, as well as of social class and changing customs in Turkish city life. The novel is closely tied to a real museum Pamuk created in Istanbul.