But the book is not just about conflicts with Islam. The book is remarkably prescient in its presentation of the conflict between traditional fundamentalist Islam and the Western secular world. This book was originally written in Turkish in 2002 and translated into English in 2004. There will be violence there will be suicide there will be poetry of course. Sinister police forces will be snooping around.

The question of headscarves will become central. I can give only the barest outlines of the plot without giving too much away, but it involves a snowbound town cut off from the secular world. It is translated by Maureen Freely and, while I can’t say anything about the accuracy of the translation, I will say that it reads very well in English. For reasons that I will make clear, it is a great read for ministers. I suppose that those who have an interest in the part of the world that he describes will find his work more interesting than those who don’t.īut I want to suggest my favorite of his novels that I think any fiction reader will find engrossing. His body of work has now gotten quite large and much of it is available in English. He has been in more than occasional trouble in Turkey with the authorities. More than any other living author, he has traced the travails of a country balancing religious traditionalism and a new modern secular state. He is a Turkish writer which not only describes his ethnicity but also his primary topic. He has won every prize there is to win, including the Nobel. Orhan Pamuk is one of the world’s greatest living writers and probably one that many of you have never heard of.

Snow book orhan pamuk