Snow by Orhan Pamuk

Ka is a journalist and writer with a writer's block for many months now. He has returned to his hometown Kars in Turkey, where the "Kar" or Snow blizzard is taking over the daily life of the residents. Among them is Ka's childhood sweetheart Ipek, and after a political exile of 12 years in Germany, Ka has another motive apart from hoping to see her- he wants to investigate the teenage girl suicide epidemic that has gripped the city. The Muslim girls of this Turkish town are killing themselves over trivial matters. Based on the headscarf or Hijab controversy in Turkey, this novel by Orhan Pamuk is originally in Turkish and has been translated and published in English by Faber publication. This Nobel Prize winning author has also penned down acclaimed novels like Istanbul, The White Castle and The Museum Of Innocence.

The story has ample and diverse characters such as a secularist, a nationalist, an Islamic extremist, Young Kurds, a former communist, the Secret Service and the Police--all woven into an exciting background of a coup -d'état and a coup-de theatre. All of this is accentuated with the undertones of love and passion. The climax of the story is when the town decides it's own fate amidst the blizzard; being cut off from the world brings out the true nature of the world they live in as there is a lack of any external influences.