Nights of Plague, by Orhan Pamuk and faithfully translated by Ekin Oklap, transports us more than a century into the past, to a country that never existed but one that feels every bit as real as the Ottoman Empire. Pamuk manages this by giving his invented history the pacing and vocabulary of a nineteenth-century novel, full of old-fashioned etiquette, dungeons, sudden reversals, and plenty of Romance. Even though this book could be read as a recreation of hundred-plus-year-old epic novels à la Dickens or Tolstoy, one doesn’t have to look very hard to see the parallels to our present. The over-arcing plot of this novel shows us a country faced with a lethal plague, a population reluctant to take precautions, and a headlong tumble into nationalism.
Pamuk blends history and fiction together very tightly in this book and has such an eye for detail that I was really disappointed to discover that Mingheria, the Mediterranean island where much of this book is set, doesn’t actually exist. Instead, Pamuk adds another daughter to the progeny of an actual deposed Ottoman emperor, Murad V, and had Murad’s brother, Abdul Hamid II, dispatch that daughter and her husband on a diplomatic mission to China at the opening of Nights of Plague. Princess Pakize and her husband, Doctor Nuri, stop at Mingheria in the spring of 1901 on the first leg of their journey to the Far East. But what was intended as a short stop turns into a long, tumultuous quarantine when it becomes clear that Yersinia pestis has broken out on the island and that the Sultan’s designated plague officer has been assassinated before he can really implement any anti-plague measures. While Pakize documents what happens outside of Mingheria’s State Hall, her husband ends up advising the Ottoman government on stopping the plague. Meanwhile, they both try to puzzle out who murdered the doctor first sent to deal with Mingheria’s plague epidemic.
We get the story of what happens through at least two frame layers (sometimes more). Our narrator is actually a present-day historian named Mîna, using Pakize’s correspondence and “historical” documents. Instead of writing a straightforward history, Mîna gives us a story in the style of the nineteenth century. There is little dialogue. Most of the novel consists of exposition about the geography of Mingheria and its capital, Arkaz; biographies of the major characters; and occasionally repetitive summaries of the different stages of the plague and the secession of Mingheria from the Ottoman Empire. There is far, far too much to sum up in this review. Seriously. Mingheria goes through five governments in less than a year, once of which is a brief monarchy helmed by Pakize for about 100 days, and that’s on top of a devastating outbreak of plague.
It’s hard not to see the parallels between the fictional 1901 Mingherian plague and the 2019-2020 COVID pandemic, accompanied by concurrent and subsequent nationalist movements around the world. Deadly plagues don’t just cause massive disruption through the loss of life; the fear of whatever disease can also provoke populations to fragment into Us versus Them as different factions argue that they have the answer to the contagion. In Nights of Plague, scientists like Doctor Nuri face off against inert government officials who find it too difficult to change the status quo as both groups square up against sectarians who dole out amulets and cliches about the will of god. People resist quarantine and disinfection requirements in this story just as much as people in my country pushed back against mask mandates, vaccines, and lockdowns. We never seem to learn, in spite of actual historical examples and fictional accounts of plague outbreaks. Just as troubling are the swells of nationalism that grow in response to fear and chaos. One can only hope, like Pakize and Nuri, that time will eventually heal all wounds.
Although Nights of Plague raises interesting questions, I found the novel heavy going. It took me more than a month and a half to finish it. Thankfully, it was easy to dip in and out of the book since there are many smaller plot arcs within the larger narrative. I could’ve wished for a faster, more focused plot, but this might be Pamuk’s style. (This is the first of his books that I’ve read.) Readers who like slow-burn historical fiction—especially fiction that accurately recreates the feel of nineteenth-century fiction—will enjoy Nights of Plague.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
