When two people love each other as we do, no one can come between them, no one," I said, amazed at the words I was uttering without preparation. "Lovers like us, because they know that nothing can destroy their love, even on the worst days, even when they are heedlessly hurting each other in the cruelest , most deceitful ways, still carry in their hearts a consolation that never abandons them." (p.191)

Pamuk's lawyer Haluk İnanıcı subsequently confirmed that charges had been dropped. The novel blends mystery romance and philosophical puzzles in a setting of 16th century Istanbul. Personal life

Pamuk's elder brother Şevket Pamuk who sometimes appears as a fictional character in Orhan Pamuk's work is a professor of economics internationally recognised for his work in history of economics of the Ottoman Empire working at Bogazici University in Istanbul.

As well as the Nobel Prize in Literature (the first Nobel Prize to be awarded to a Turkish citizen) Pamuk is the recipient of numerous other literary awards. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists his work has sold over eleven million books in sixty languages making him the country's best-selling writer. Ferit Orhan Pamuk (generally known simply as Orhan Pamuk; born 7 June 1952) is a Turkish novelist screenwriter academic and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature.