[One Sip of a Book] Global Contagion and Chaos: The Night of the Plague

Some sentences encapsulate the entire content of the book itself, while others instantly reach the reader's heart, creating a point of contact with the book. We introduce such meaningful sentences excerpted from the book. - Editor's note

This is a new novel by Orhan Pamuk, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006. Having achieved both literary merit and commercial success, he once again weaves an attractive and grand narrative by combining historical fiction and mystery. The story is set on the fictional island of Minger under the Ottoman Empire in 1901, where the plague spreads causing chaos, and eventually, an orthodox Christian and quarantine expert sent to the island is murdered.

Several captains with delicate souls invited passengers to the deck to enjoy the scenery of Minger when the magnificent sight, described by Homer in the Iliad as “a green diamond made of pink stone,” appeared on the horizon, and painters heading east passionately captured this romantic landscape on their canvases, adding storm-laden black clouds.

“Pasha, did this person really commit the murder? Or is it possible that he confessed because he could not endure the harsh interrogation?”

“Not only the telegram sent to you but also the decree I received clearly shows that our Padishah is very eager to immediately identify the murderer, as you surely know as well as I do!”

...

“The Padishah does not want to find Bonkovski’s murderer in this manner.”

“You speak as if you know what His Majesty wants and what method he desires.”

“Yes, that is correct. His Majesty wishes to investigate the details of the murder like Sherlock Holmes stories and find the real murderer of Pasha Bonkovski based on evidence, not by beating or torture.”

“Who is Sherlock Holmes?”

Among Muslims, hostility toward Christians sometimes turned into anger directed at Ottoman officials, governors, and soldiers. There was a basic sentiment shared by almost everyone on the island. Many believed that after all the reform measures proclaimed over the past fifty years to win favor with Europeans, and the improvements and reforms carried out partly under European pressure and partly sincerely for equality between Christians and Muslims, the island was now going through difficult times, and Europe, instead of helping, had left the island to the fate of its inhabitants.

The Night of the Plague | Written by Orhan Pamuk | Translated by Inanah | Minumsa | 780 pages | 19,000 KRW