Snow, or "Kar" in Turkish: The eponymous novel by Orhan Pamuk tells a complex, darkly humorous and politically fraught tale about modern Turkey. But yesterday it simply covered Pamuk's hometown of Istanbul -- and some intrepid fisherman on the city's Galata Bridge -- in a blanket of white. A heavy snowstorm on Jan. 8 virtually shut down the commercial hub, disrupting air traffic and ground transportation in the city of 15 million people.