It was the happiest moment of my life, though I didn't know it.'
And so begins the new novel from the universally acclaimed author of Snow and My
Name is Red, his first since winning the Nobel Prize.
It is a perfect Spring in 1975, Istanbul. Kemal, heir to one of the town's
wealthiest families, is about to become engaged to Sibel, from another
aristocratic family, when he encounters Füsun, a beautiful shopgirl, and a
distant relation.
As they break the taboo of virginity, a rift opens between Kemal and his
lovingly described world of the westernized families of Istanbul with their
opulent parties