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Aug 08, 2009AD_Library rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
One of Turkey’s most notable and admired authors takes us on a journey delving into the blurry push-pull lines between Secular Turkey and the rise of Fundamentalists. Ka, a poet who was exiled to Germany, returns to Istanbul for his mother’s funeral. There he hears of a suicide epidemic in Kars (the east side of Turkey) by young Muslim girls who have been banned from wearing their headscarves at school. Posing as a journalist, Ka travels to Kars to investigate the situation (but also is chasing after his lost love, Ipek, who makes her home there) and finds his atheist mentality confused by Blue, an admired “rebel” who has a romance with Ipek’s sister, Kadife. The work is a translated text, which perhaps impacted my opinion of the writing, which is tender and detailed, but perhaps not to my taste. Two stars (out of five)