Nights of Plague by Orhan Pamuk (translated by Ekin Oklap)

‘There may not be too many people on our island. But everyone here has their own particular view of things, and they are not afraid to express it.’

Set on the fictitious Mediterranean island of Mingheria, this novel covers six months in 1901 when the island is struck by an outbreak of bubonic plague which results in both severe loss of life and changes to the political organisation of an island that was part of the Ottoman Empire.

The novel is presented as both a history written as a novel and an historical novel. The author, writing in 2017, is a daughter of Mingheria, who has primarily based her novel on letters written by the Ottoman Princess Pakize. Princess Pakize’s letters are, we are told, being prepared for publication. Princess Pakize is the fictional daughter of Sultan Murad V, who reigned as Sultan between May and August 1876 before being deposed in favour of his half-brother. He then spent the rest of his life in confinement in Çırağan Palace in Istanbul.

Princess Pakize, her doctor husband and the Royal Chemist Bonkowski Pasha, arrive on the royal ship Azizye. There are rumours of plague, which some in power try to suppress. And the different ethnic and religious groups who live on Mingheria are suspicious of each other and have different views about how the plague has entered the island, how it spreads and how it might be contained.

Not surprisingly, the plague spreads, as does civil unrest. Plague is not the only killer. Princess Pakize and her husband have important roles to play, and as the novel extends beyond six months in Mingheria we learn more about them.

There are plenty of twists and turns in this novel and I read it quite quickly curious to see how it would end. While it is true that plague was not the only killer in the novel, the strength of the novel is in its portrayal of the Ottoman Empire in its last years rather than as a murder mystery.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith