Snow

by Orhan Pamuk

First published 2002

Amazon

3.6(51,448)

After twelve years of political exile in Germany, the poet Ka returns to Turkey and travels to the eastern city of Kars. Officially he is reporting on municipal elections and a wave of suicides among young women barred from wearing headscarves at school. Privately, he hopes to renew his relationship with İpek, a former university acquaintance whose marriage has ended.

A blizzard isolates the city while secular officials, political Islamists, Kurdish activists, journalists and a travelling theatre company compete to control its public life. A theatrical coup turns performance into real violence, and Ka’s sudden return to poetry becomes entangled with negotiation and betrayal. The novel is modern political fiction rather than a period novel, so no historical context has been forced onto it.