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Pamuk’s allegory has not gone unnoticed by the powers that be, earning the Nobel laureate legal trouble for supposedly insulting Turkey’s flag and the nation’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

It’s not the first time Pamuk has stirred up nationalist ire, as he’s been charged with “insulting Turkishness” in the past.

Orhan Pamuk’s newly translated “Nights of Plague” is a novel of contradictions: humorous as it is dire, historical as it is fictitious.

Pamuk’s conjoined interest in these strikingly contemporary themes was coincidental; he began writing the book several years before the appearance of the coronavirus.

Even when discussing grave topics, Pamuk manages to remain optimistic, insisting that things might yet change for the better in his country.