The tensions and hypocrisies inherent in the relationship reflect those of the panoramic Istanbul behind it, eager to be modern and Western yet resolutely attached to the traditions of the past and the East. Sexual freedom, long sought for, carries its own dangers. 

In Istanbul, a woman's pre-marital virginity, or at least the appearance of it, somehow remains essential. Füsun pays for her teenage bedwork by being shoved into an arranged marriage to avoid further shame and family dishonour. Kemal's and Sibel's pre-marital carryings-on scandalise society. 

As Kemal exhibits the steadily assembling collection of his museum while the years pass, clinging on to the notion that he is happy until the very end though those around him see nothing but ruin in his bizarre, solitary existence, Pamuk gives a virtuoso display of storytelling, sumptuously translated by Maureen Freely. The Museum of Innocence is a work of prodigious imaginative power, an exhilarating and heart-tearing read and an epic of love and obsession, memory and loss.