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VINTAGE CLASSICS
YASHAR KEMAL
Yashar Kemal (1923–2015) was born on the cotton-growing plains of Chukurova, which feature in his The Wind from the Plain trilogy. His championship of poor peasants lost him a succession of jobs, but he was eventually able to buy a typewriter and set himself up as a public letter-writer in the small town of Kadirli. After a spell as a journalist, he published a volume of short stories in 1952, and then, in 1955, his first novel, Memed, My Hawk, won the Varlik Prize for best novel of the year. His work won countless prizes from around the world, and was translated into several languages. Kemal was a member of the Central Committee of the banned Workers’ Party, and in 1971 he was held in prison for 26 days before being released without charge. Subsequently, he was placed on trial for action in support of Kurdish dissidents. Among the many international prizes and honours he received in recognition of his gifts as a writer and his fight for human rights, are the French Légion d’Honneur and the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, as well as a nomination for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Kemal was one of Turkey’s most influential writers and, in the words of John Berger, ‘one of the modern world’s great storytellers’.
ALSO BY YASHAR KEMAL
The Wind from the Plain Iron Earth, Copper Sky
The Undying Grass They Burn Thistles
To Crush the Serpent
The Sea-Crossed Fisherman
The Birds Have Also Gone Salman the Solitary
YASHAR KEMAL
Memed, My Hawk
TRANSLATED FROM THE TURKISH BY
Edouard Roditi
20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SA
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Copyright © Yashar Kemal 1958
English translation copyright © Edouard Roditi 1961
Yashar Kemal has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This edition reissued by Vintage in 2016
First published in Great Britain by Collins and Harvill Press in 1961 First published under the title of Ince Memed in Istanbul in 1955
www.vintage-books.co.uk
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9781784701086
Printed and bound by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc
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