Orhan Pamuk, born in Istanbul, is the author of My Name is Red, Snow, Istanbul: Memories and the City, and numerous other works. Over his career, Pamuk has investigated questions of identity, cultural representation, and political agency, achieving fame in Turkey for his complex, ambitious prose, which contrasts with the predominantly realist tradition of the Turkish novel. In 2005 he faced charges in Turkey related to statements he made regarding the killings of Kurds and Armenians in Anatolia. The charges were eventually dropped.