Dread, yearning, identity, intrigue, the lethal chemistry
between secular doubt and Islamic fanaticism–these are the elements
that Orhan Pamuk anneals in this masterful, disquieting novel. An
exiled poet named Ka returns to Turkey and travels to the forlorn
city of Kars. His ostensible purpose is to report on a wave of
suicides among religious girls forbidden to wear their
head-scarves. But Ka is also drawn by his memories of the radiant
Ipek, now recently divorced.
Amid blanketing snowfall and universal suspicion, Ka finds himself
pursued by figures ranging from Ipek’s ex-husband to a charismatic
terrorist. A lost gift returns with ecstatic suddenness. A
theatrical evening climaxes in a massacre. And finding god may be
the prelude to losing everything else. Touching, slyly comic, and
humming with cerebral suspense, Snow is of immense relevance to our
present moment.