Turkish author Pamuk scoops Nobel prize

TURKISH writer Orhan Pamuk won the Nobel literature prize yesterday, for his multitude of works that deal with the symbols of clashing cultures.

The Swedish Academy said in Stockholm that the 54-year-old Istanbul-born Mr Pamuk “in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures”.

In its citation, the academy said that “Pamuk has said that growing up, he experienced a shift from a traditional Ottoman family environment to a more Western-oriented lifestyle. He wrote about this in his first published novel, a family chronicle, which in the spirit of Thomas Mann follows the development of a family over three generations”.