Snow

A spellbinding tale set in a remote Turkish town, where stirrings of political Islamism threaten to unravel the secular order. A middle-aged poet returns to Istanbul following years of exile in Western Europe, only to find himself disoriented by strange events in the wider country, including a wave of suicides among girls forbidden to wear their head scarves at school. He is drawn to Kars, a far-off town near the Russian border and a cultural gray-zone of poverty and paralysis. As a snowstorm descends on the town, he finds himself drawn in unexpected directions, including towards a radiant friend from his youth and even towards God. Blending profound sympathy and mischievous wit, Snow illuminates the contradictions gripping the individual and collective heart in many parts of the Muslim world.