🎨 June Book Club Pick: My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk

A modern classic of art, mystery, and identity

In June, we’re heading into richly painted territory with My Name is Red by Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, a Nobel Prize–winning writer whose work bridges Eastern and Western literary traditions. Though first published in 1998, this novel has already earned its place as a modern classic—not just for its literary merit, but for its bold, timeless exploration of creativity, power, and the meaning of art itself.

Set in 16th-century Istanbul during the height of the Ottoman Empire, the novel opens with a murder and unfolds through a mosaic of perspectives—some human, some not. As a group of imperial miniaturist painters work in secret on a book that defies Islamic artistic tradition, questions arise: What is the cost of innovation? Who controls the narrative of beauty? And what happens when art challenges faith, empire, and legacy?

Pamuk weaves a story that’s part historical mystery, part philosophical meditation, and part love story, all narrated in a deeply original and multi-voiced structure. You’ll hear from a murdered man, a jealous apprentice, the woman they both loved—and even a coin, a tree, and the color red.

So why this book for a classics club?

• It’s deeply rooted in classical traditions of storytelling—from Islamic and Persian artistic philosophy to Western literary forms like the murder mystery and frame tale.
• It explores eternal themes: the nature of art, truth, authorship, and the tension between tradition and progress.
• And Pamuk’s own place in literature is cemented: he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, and this novel is widely considered his masterpiece.

If May’s The Picture of Dorian Gray showed us beauty’s dangers in the West, My Name is Red invites us to reconsider beauty from another world entirely—where art and faith intertwine, and style becomes political.

This is a lush, layered novel to savor, perfect for early summer reading. It’s a book that asks not just who did it, but why art matters—and we can’t wait to discuss it with you.