Marie Arana. Armstrong, in Hurriyet Daily News, described the novel as "one of [Pamuk's] more successful balancing acts between ["his taste for lofty intellectual flights of fancy and the need to spin a good yarn"]. It successfully knits social, historical, and philosophical considerations". Calling it a gripping snapshot of a divided country, he described the use of interior monologues narrated by each character as "a Faulknerian touch that gives thrust and variety to the story". Armstrong also said Silent House is a good introduction to Pamuk for new readers. Arana wrote that "it will have you flipping back and forth constantly, wondering how the puzzle fits [...] it is a remarkable mirror on the din and dissonance of the day." Max Liu, in The Independent, praised "its immediacy, topicality, early signs of the inventiveness and conviction that would later distinguish novels such as The Black Book and The Museum of Innocence." Asif Farrukhi argued in Dawn that "Pamuk focuses his attention on individual lives and their concerns, without indulging in political allegorisation or heavy symbolism to make them more 'representative' of what is happening in the country [...] With a sure and steady hand, he introduces larger questions which [characters] are confronted with". He also praised the story between Hilgun and Nasan as having a "moving Dostoveskyan [sic] conclusion". In The Independent, David Evans said the book succeeds as a commentary on contemporary Turkish politics, and also argued that "Pamuk nimbly shifts between these characters as they muse on the subjects close to them [...] demonstrating an early mastery of technique. [...] in dramatising a range of different perspectives, the book stresses the importance of listening to dissenting views". Francine Prose described the experience of reading the book as "very pleasurable" and explained, "The book is dense, threaded through with ideas about history, religion, memory, class and politics. But it never seems didactic because the reader comes to realize that these reflections are aspects of the inner life: plausible components of the characters’ psyches." The Guardian's Mark Lawson implied that Silent House was not among Pamuk's finest works, and said some cultural tensions within the country are represented "perhaps a little schematically." Nonetheless, Lawson stated, "A novelist prescient enough to publish [Hasan's predictions about the involvement of Islamist young men in a terrible event] in 1983 proved himself fully deserving of the call from the Swedish Academy in 2006." A