The White Castle by Orhan Pamuk, 1990

An Italian traveling to Naples has his ship commandeered by an Ottoman fleet and is taken as a slave. Incidental medical knowledge and some simply treated injuries lets him pass as a doctor, and he works his way into becoming a pasha’s favorite. His pleas for freedom are ignored, but he does get handed off as the personal slave of a man with whom he will work on important projects. The Italian finds his new master to be his double, but no one else seems to recognize the similarity. Their successful projects bring them to the sultan’s attention, although the Italian’s refusal to renounce his Christianity means he remains in the background while his double gets the attention.

The tale seems commonplace; it begins with a note about a manuscript found in a box of forgotten documents. Pamuk turns the tale into an extended meditation on story telling and identity. At first the problem is physical, the apparently unremarkable resemblance. Eventually the pair exchange stories, orally and in writing, and the problem becomes deeper: is who you are what you do, or can you think your way to an identity? Pamuk has an answer, and loads the tale towards his preference, but then complicates matters by questioning the possibility of identify at all.