The New Life

The simple act of reading a book uproots Orhan Pamuk's student protagonist from his old identity and into a world of hypnotic text and endlessly ramifying conspiracies. Within days he falls in love with the elusive Janan; witnesses an attempted assassination; and forsakes his family to become a wanderer across the Turkish steppes as he seeks out "the new life" promised by the book--while outracing the almost certain death that pursues its readers.