The Red-Haired Woman by Orhan Pamuk

Some members had difficulty getting past the descriptions of monotonous well-digging (which was clearly a feat of hard manual labour without the benefit of safety equipment in rural Turkey in the 1980s).

However, overall the conclusion was that this book is a good read which has much to offer the reader who is seeking an insight into Turkish culture and modern history. Members agreed it is great story about the relationships between fathers and sons which weaves in the two ancient myths of sexual and violent intrigue - Sophocles' Oedipus Rex - where the son unknowingly kills his father - and Rostam and Sohrab from the Persian Book of Kings - where the father unknowingly kills his son.

The narrator, Cem, is introduced to us as a 16 year old boy whose father has disappeared off the scene in apparent pursuit of political aims. Callously, Cem, as an apprentice well-digger, leaves his master, Mahmut, at the bottom of an unfinished well after a night of passion with the woman of the title who works in a local theatrical troupe. Somewhat miraculously he gets away with his crime and eventually becomes a wealthy businessman in property development. Of course, his past finally catches up with him but not before enough twists and turns to satisfy any mystery reader.

Those who have read Orhan Pamuk before will recognise the author's familiar themes in this book - the rapid development of modern Istanbul and its expansion into surrounding rural areas with the destruction of old ways of life; and a nostalgia for landscapes and figures from Istanbul's past (in this case the revered village well-diggers and the myths around their crucial ability to find water).