Snow

Snow by Orhan Pamuk, translated from the Turkish by Maureen Freely,  425 pages.
A dense and beautiful book. Turkish poet, Ka returns from Germany after living in exile there for years. Drawn by his own history and by events to stay in the the town of Kars, near the Armenian border, Ka makes the strange realization that he is now in love with Ipek, a woman he knew years ago, As he attempts to win Ipek, Ka becomes entangled in the clashing stories of the town and the times. There has been a rash of suicides in Kars among devout school-aged girls, after they had been forced to remove their headscarves in school. Ipek's sister is dating a radical Muslim activist, Blue, who has been accused of several violent acts; Blue may or may not have been behind the murder Ipek and Ka witnessed in a cafe. And the local paper pre-prints the news for that day, laying out the events that the editor expects to happen. Through the surreal and confusing events that unfold, a snowstorm that isolates the town, a violent clash between the secularists and religious extremists, Ka finds his poetic voice returning.