Snow
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4.1 • 65 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Touching, slyly comic, and humming with cerebral suspense—a masterful novel of "political intrigue and philosophy, romance and noir" (Vogue) and the lethal chemistry between secular doubt and Islamic fanaticism from the Nobel Prize winner.
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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Orhan Pamuk’s penetrating story of turmoil in early 2000s Turkey mixes romance, danger, and the tricky dance of politics and religion. Exiled Turkish poet Ka returns to his homeland, partly to seek out his newly single love interest, Ipek. A blizzard strands him there while things go haywire around him. Tensions between the secular government and Muslim fundamentalists are near their breaking point, and the assassination of a local official kicks off a string of catastrophic events for Ka and those in his orbit, even as the catharsis breaks his writer’s block. Nobel Prize winner Pamuk becomes poet, philosopher, and historian all at once while tackling the complex sociopolitical scene, exploring the gray areas instead of taking sides. Get set for a slice of historical fiction that hits the head and heart with equal force.
Customer Reviews
Snow
Written by the Turkish, Nobel Prize winning author, Orhan Pamuk, this novel delves into the soul of Turkish culture. It explores the deep schisms in religion, politics and ethnicity that besets his secular/Muslim nation. It explores the love/hate/envy relationship that most Turks have with the Western World.
The story is set in the snowbound far-eastern border city of Kars, as a poet returning to his homeland from Western Europe pursues love and inspiration amid a theatrical revolution.
As usual, Pamuk spins an interesting and complex tale that is a pleasure to read, but it does drags along in a few places.
Fascinating and a great learning tool
I learnt so much about a part of the world I knew so little about. Fantastic read!