"This translation originally published in hardcover in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf ... New York, in 2004"--Title page verso

The journey to Kars -- The outlying districts -- Poverty and history -- Ka meets ♯ʻpek in the New Life Pastry Shop -- The first and last conversation between the murderer and his victim -- Love, religion, and poetry: Muhtar's sad story -- At party headquarters, police headquarters, and once again in the streets -- Blue and R©ơstem -- A nonbeliever who does not want to kill himself -- Snow and happiness -- Ka with Sheikh Efendi -- The sad story of Necip and Hicran -- A walk through the snow with Kadife -- The dinner conversation turns to love, head scarves, and suicide -- At the National Theater -- Necip describes his landscape and Ka recites his poem -- A play about a girl who burns her head scarf -- A revolution onstage -- The night of the revolution -- While Ka slept and when he woke the next morning -- Ka in the cold rooms of terror -- Sunay Zaim's military and theatrical careers -- With Sunay at military headquarters -- The six-sided snowflake -- Ka with Kadife in the hotel room -- Blue's statement to the west -- Ka urges Turgut Bey to sign the statement -- Ka with ♯ʻpek in the hotel room -- In Frankfurt -- A short spell of happiness -- The secret meeting at the Hotel Asia -- On love, insignificance, and Blue's disappearance -- The fear of being shot -- The mediator -- Ka with Blue in his cell -- Bargaining in which life vies with theater, and art with politics -- Preparations for the play to end all plays -- An enforced visit -- Ka and ♯ʻpek meet at the hotel -- The first half of the chapter -- The missing green notebook -- From ♯ʻpek's point of view -- The final act -- Four years later, in Kars

A spellbinding tale of disparate yearnings (for love, art, power, and God) set in a remote Turkish town, where stirrings of political Islamism threaten to unravel the secular order