Snow

This section introduces the protagonist, Ka, and the history of Turkey, whose geographical position between East and West has given it a distinctive and rich culture and led to the intermingling of many diverse groups. Through the characterization of Ka as an outsider to Kars, the establishment of snow’s metaphorical and symbolic significance, and the presentation of Turkey’s political and religious history, this section provides context for the rest of the novel’s events.

When Ka returns to Istanbul, he notes that it is unrecognizable from what he remembers from childhood because it has become so modernized. In Kars, Ka hopes to recapture memories “of innocence and childhood” (4)—of feeling “at home in this world” (4). The desire to belong and the sense of loss that accompanies the loss of innocence are important to both the poet Ka and the narrator.

As an exile, Ka has not been to Turkey in 12 years, and Ka tells İpek that he hasn’t written a poem in four years. Ka’s status as an exile therefore represents his broader sense of loss and melancholy. When Ka and İpek sit at the “New Life Pastry Shop,” Ka admits to İpek that he lives in silence in Germany, isolated as he is by culture and language. The name of the pastry shop initially seems like a straightforward symbol of the hope that Ka’s love for İpek gives him, which he believes will transform his life. However, this name takes on an ironic meaning when it becomes the site of the murder of the director of the Institute of Education. Throughout the novel, the author gives Kars’s cafes and shops optimistic names that contrast with the dread and terror that occurs both inside and around them. This use of irony suggests the long-term consequences of the trip to Kars on Ka’s life: It represents hope and bliss for Ka initially, but by the end of the novel it will lead to his murder.

The detailed imagery of the décor of the pastry shop and the teahouses is also metaphorical. Ka notes that the tapestry on the wall is not the “beautiful mountains of Kars but the mountains of Switzerland” (36). This captures the ambivalence Kars’s citizens feel toward their European neighbors and their own national identity. Ka further contemplates Kars’s complex history and its poverty as he walks through the snow. Kars used to be a flourishing and important border city between the Ottoman and Russian Empires, and it had a thriving middle class. It has been home to many different peoples: Armenians, Persians, Greeks, Georgians, Kurds, and Circassians. Turkey is also where the Armenian genocide—the first genocide of the 20th century—took place. This complicated history manifests in the narrator’s detailed descriptions of Kars’s atmosphere and architecture, which includes old Russian and Armenian buildings.

Now Kars is destitute, with frequent electricity outages and few opportunities for its citizens to improve their situation. Ka notes the many explanations for this predicament that the locals offer: the end of the Soviet Union causing decreased business; communist guerillas; wealthy people moving to Istanbul and Ankara. Serdar Bey, the owner of the local paper, offers a different explanation still: “In the old days we were all brothers [...] It was the Communists and their Tiflis Radio who spread tribal pride […] Now everyone is prouder—and poorer” (26-27). The novel explores this concept of fellowship and community through a variety of lenses—economic, social, spiritual, and political—and the characters each seek belonging in their own ways.

The deep hostilities in Kars between conservative Islamist beliefs and modernizing, “Western” views feature in the transcript of the conversation between the director of the Institute of Education and his murderer. This literary technique of injecting a variety of materials into the narrative disrupts the traditional third-person point of view, blurring the lines between reality and fiction. Though the novel’s narrator maintains a low profile in these chapters, noting simply that he is Ka’s friend, his later interventions in the novel’s action serve a similar purpose and are characteristic of postmodernism.

The sight of the snow blanketing Kars as Ka rides the bus fills Ka with a sense of magic and mystery. Despite calling himself an atheist, Ka repeats several times that the snow feels like God’s presence. The sudden heavy snowfall and its role in isolating Kars symbolize the mystical power of the divine. It also suggests the return of Ka’s poetic powers, as Ka feels inspired to write poetry for the first time in years thanks to both his love for İpek and the beauty of snow-covered Kars.