The prominent contemporary Turkish author examines the clash between East and West in modern Turkey. Ka, an exiled poet, travels to a small Turkish town near the Armenian border to investigate a wave of suicides and search out a past love. When a blizzard isolates the village from the rest of the world, the conflict between Western concepts and Islamic values erupts. Palmuk has also written The New Life (TKY92), My Name is Red (TKY68), and The Black Book (TKY01).  (TKY93, $14.95)