A sweeping, emotionally charged novel of the nature of romantic attachment and the strange allure of collecting this is Orhan Pamuks greatest achievement.It is Istanbul in 1975. Kemal is a rich and engaged man when he by chance encounters a long-lost relation, Fusun, a young shopgirl whose beauty stirs all the passion denied him in a society where sex outside marriage is taboo. Fusun ends their liaison when she learns of Kemals engagement. But Kemal cannot forget her: for nine years he tries to change her mind, meanwhile stealing from her an odd assortment of personal items, which he collects and cherishes a museum of innocence that he puts on display to tell the heartbreaking story of a love that shaped a life.From the Hardcover edition.