A teenage apprentice well-digger named Cem, working outside Istanbul under master well-digger Mahmut, falls for an older woman known as the Red-Haired Woman, and a violent accident at the well entangles his life for decades with the myths of Oedipus and of Rostam and Sohrab.
Books mentioned in The Red-Haired Woman (5)
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles: “I was startled to see the title Oedipus the King across its yellow cover... I'd first read Oedipus's story in synopsis.”
Shahnameh by Ferdowsi: “The name Sohrab didn't come from my monologue, but from Ferdowsi's thousand-year-old Shahnameh.”
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky: “Once, I thought I'd pick up a new translation of The Brothers Karamazov as a birthday gift for my fiancée.”
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky: “I decided, after reading the unsettling essay on the spot, to buy her a copy of The Idiot instead.”
Masnavi by Rumi: “Trying to appeal to the widest audience possible, I picked speeches from Rumi's Masnavi and old Sufi stories and fables.”