Customer Reviews (1)

Kemal at his best.
This is a wonderful tale from Kemal and one that deserves a wider audience.Kemal mostly chooses to write about that small corner of Anatolia where he grew up.Its in the south east not too far from the Syrian border and a crossroads of cultures.Arab, Kurdish, Turkish, Armenian, Muslim, Christian, Alevi, Yezidi.This story is centred around the Turkmen nomads.

To begin with it should be pointed out that Kemal writes for the Turkish audience so the language can at times seem a little flowery for the English reader but I would ask for patience from anyone reading this because if you give up too soon you are missing out on a jem.

The reason I say this is because the first few chapters are around the Turkmen tribe sitting up waiting for a legendary night when all their wishes will come true.The story then begins in earnest and concerns one of the last nomadic tribes in this part of Turkey desperately trying to find a piece of land where they can settle and graze cattle.The problem for them is that Turkey has now moved into the republic, the land has become settled and owned by local businessmen many of whom with Turkoman ancestry settled there long ago, struggled against the elements and made a home there with no interest in it being upsured by nomads from the mountains.

The book is essentially a struggle between an old world and a newly forming one. Against old traditions and new ways. Old loyalties and new standards of living.If anything it invokes some of the great Russian novels of the late 19th Century or even Bulgakov "A country doctors notebook"

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Customer Reviews (1)

If I could only find it in English translation ...
I picked up this marvelous little book in Turkey (in German) and have read it three or four times. Not being a native German speaker, I may have missed important allusions when Turkish concepts could not be translated perfectly in easily readable German. Consequently, I have been hoping to find a good English translation, but like so many other fine Middle Eastern (and Eastern European) books this seems to be only available readily in German. Still searching, and will always search. ... Read more

Product Description
The first volume of a trilogy called "Beyond the Mountain", which describes the Yalak villagers, who come down from the Taurus mountains each year to pick cotton on the hot Chukurova plain. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

At least in translation, a failure.
Perhaps I expected a Turkish/Kurdish "And Quiet Flows the Don". But unlike Sholokov , Kemal has a very poor ear for dialogue. The bulk of this novel revolves around a kvetching mother and her much abused son traveling to the coastal cotton-fields. Much of the invective is of the "may the fleas of a thousand camels infest your crotch" genre. Long before the end of their journey, you are thoroughly sick of the childish behavior of the characters, and this miserable tale , poorly told.

The author makes little note of the landscape of the Taurus mountains transversed. Little insight is offered into traditional Turkish village life, unless that it must have beenwretchedly insular and unhappy. The characters are little more than cardboard figures from which a long stream of insults, curses, and threats issue forth.

I do not understand why this book is held in esteem. Is it because it is exotic literature from a little known culture? Is Turkish literature in such dire straits that this author's work is touted as some pinnacle of achievement?

I can't imagine where or how others saw poetry and lyricism in this pontless literary effort. A true waste of the readers time.

Superb
Can story-telling get any better than this? Do yourself a favour and start reading Kemal's books now. He's indeed one of the world's leading writers for the Nobel. ... Read more

Product Description
The first volume of a trilogy called "Beyond the Mountain", which describes the Yalak villagers, who come down from the Taurus mountains each year to pick cotton on the hot Chukurova plain. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Myths of the Anatolia
Yashar Kemal tells of his own Anatolian Myths in a poetic style.Descriptions of the flames, reflection of ignorance, these are all very well expressed in the book, in a way that emotions and myths turn in to real, both for the villagers and the readers.Yashar Kemal turned out to be a myth in Turkish literature, because of his style of reflecting the unknown Anatolia for the urban population of the Turkey and the myths and unwritten literature of Turks, Kurds and many other ethnic groups of Cukurova.Also you should be aware that the Cukurova you will read in "Iron Earth, Copper Sky" and his other books won't be the same Cukurova you may visit today. Once in an interview, Yashar Kemal claims that "If I had written the exact Cukurova, why would I want to write it?". You should read "Iron Earth, Copper Sky" to see how being raised on a land of myths shapes a man and how a man, a writer, shapes the myths.

Excellent in everyway
A tremendous tale which is full of humanity, humour and allegory. The faith in life and the fallibility of the human race are wonderfully portrayed here by Turkey's greatest writer of the century. ... Read more

Product Description
Turkey’s greatest novelist, Yashar Kemal is an unsurpassed storyteller who brings to life a world of staggering violence and hallucinatory beauty. Kemal’s books delve deeply into the entrenched social and historical conflicts that scar the Middle East. At the same time scents and sounds, vistas of mountain and stream and field, rise up from the pages of his books with primitive force.

Memed—introduced in Kemal’s legendary first novel, Memed, My Hawk, and a recurrent character in many of his books—is one of the few truly mythic figures of modern fiction, a desperado and sometime defender of the oppressed who is condemned to wander in the blood-soaked gray zone between justice and the law. In They Burn the Thistles, one of the finest of Kemal’s novels, Memed is on the run. Hunted by his enemies, wounded, at wit’s end, he has lost faith in himself and has retreated to ponder the vanity of human wishes. Only a chance encounter with an extraordinarily beautiful and powerful stallion, itself a hunted creature, serves to restore his determination and rouse him to action. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A must read
A profound and remarkable book about human emotions, hopes and limitations in a lush landscape, lushly described, but an unforgiving social world.

Wearying and Odd
Kemal self-consciously aims to create a modern myth, but They Burn the Thistles falls short.The plot is relatively simple and ought to have been more interesting - the protagonist, Memed, arrives amidst a terrible land war in which the peasants are getting the very short end of the stick from the newly empowered ruling class.Memed's previous heroics, known to the characters in the book but not to the reader (unless one has read prior volumes written by Kemal), apparently inspire an uprising of sorts by the peasants.Events escalate until they are finally terrible enough for Memed to save the day, sort of.All of this is drawn out interminably.The book's virtues are in the strangeness of place and culture, but they are greatly outweighed by the oddly uneven prose, which mixes occasional power and insightful descriptions of characters' conscious thoughts with overly long descriptions of landscape and highly purple dialogue.Much as I wanted to appreciate the book more, I hesitate to recommend it.

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Chapters: Ismet Inönü, Cemal Gürsel, Edip Yuksel, Yaşar Kemal, Ziya Gökalp, Bülent Ecevit, Turgut Özal, Yılmaz Güney, Leyla Zana, Hasan Saltık, Gazi Yasargil, Mahsun Kırmızıgül, Mehmed Uzun, Said Nursî, Erdal Inönü, Ahmet Kaya, Hüseyin Baybaşin, Hikmet Çetin, Osman Baydemir, Hülya Avşar, Osman Öcalan, Ibrahim Tatlıses, Yekta Uzunoglu, Şivan Perwer, Abdullah Demirbaş, Leyla Güven, Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı, Abdullah Cevdet, Pervin Buldan, Hüseyin Çelik, Aysel Tuğluk, Medet Serhat, Mehmet Şimşek, Aziz Yıldırım, Yıldız Tilbe, Eren Keskin, Hikmet Fidan, Necati Şaşmaz, Musa Anter, Savaş Buldan, Sevahir Bayındır, Sebahat Tuncel, Mahmut Yıldırım, Ahmet Türk, Nurullah Tevfik Ağansoy, Mehmet Mehdi Eker, Yüksel Yavuz, Hacı Karay, Mehdi Zana, Sedat Bucak, Abdullah Baybaşin, Kâmran Inan, Ahmed Arif, Şehrîbana Kurdî, Alişan, Orhan Miroğlu. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 214. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Cemal Gürsel (13 October 1895 14 September 1966), was a Turkish army officer, and the fourth President of Turkey. He was born in Erzurum City to the Turkish parents as the son of a Turkish Ottoman army officer, Abidin, the grandson of Ibrahim (1820-1895) and the great-grandson of Haci Ahmad (1790 - 1860). After the elementary school in Ordu and the military middle school in Erzincan, he graduated from the Kuleli military high school in Istanbul. He was a popular figure and was therefore nicknamed "Cemal Aa" (big brother Cemal) since his childhood school years and onwards all his life. Gürsel served in the Army for 45 years. During World War I, he participated in the Battle of Çanakkale in Dardanelles, Gallipoli as a lieutenant with the First Battery of the 12th Artillery Regiment in 1915 and received the War Medal. He later fought at the Palestine and Syria fronts in 1917 and became a prisoner ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=1132212 ... Read more

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Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Fatih Terim, Yaşar Kemal, Aytaç Durak, Yılmaz Güney, Ali Şen, Hasan Şaş, Salih Güney, Şener Şen, Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ, Muzaffer Izgü, Özdemir Sabancı, Şaziye Ivegin-Karslı, Ayşe Hatun Önal, Haroutioun Hovanes Chakmakjian, Ömer Sabancı, Sabancı Family, Kasım Gülek, Ali Erdemir, Selahattin Çolak, Suna Kan, Mehmet Sabancı, Ali Sabancı, Tayyibe Gülek, Ergün Teber, Ege Bagatur, Hasan Gültang, Ayşe Arman, Dolunay Soysert, Ferdi Tayfur, Turgut Aykaç, Arzu Özyiğit, Bilge Kösebalaban, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Eyüp Can, Hüseyin Dündar, Mert Öcal, Feridun Düzağaç. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Fatih Terim, Commendatore OSSI, (born 4 September 1953 in Adana) is one of the most successful football players and managers of Turkey. Terim is regarded as a hard-line motivator whose no-nonsense approach was honed during 11 years as a rugged defender with Galatasaray. His nickname is İmparator, which is the Turkish word for "Emperor". This nickname is also widely used in Italy in his reference. In a survey conducted by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) in 80 countries, Fatih Terim was placed among the best eight managers in the world. He received his award at a ceremony held in Rothenburg, Germany on January 8, 2001. Terim was nominated to be named UEFA manager of the year 2008. Eurosport named Terim as the best coach at Euro 2008 . In December 2008, Terim was ranked the 7th best football manager in the world by World Soccer Magazine. Despite his successful record as the manager of Turkey in UEFA Euro 2008, Terim resigned from his post in October 2009 upon the failure of Turkish national team's qualification for Fifa World Cup 2010. Currently being free, his name is often speculated with Italian and Spanish football teams. Terim also ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=1244879 ... Read more

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Der Erwerb des Buches enthält gleichzeitig die kostenlose Mitgliedschaft im Buchklub des Verlags zum Ausprobieren - dort können Sie von über einer Million Bücher ohne weitere Kosten auswählen. Das Buch besteht aus Wikipedia-Artikeln: Orhan Pamuk, Hrant Dink, Yaşar Kemal, Bülent Ecevit, Hüseyin Vasıf Çınar, Mehmet Şevket Eygi, Hıdır Eren Çelik, Uğur Mumcu, Aziz Nesin, Nedim Hazar, İsmail Cem, Abdi İpekçi, Aslı Sevindim, Mustafa Efe, Ahmet Altan, Mahmut Baksi, Orhan Yılmazkaya, Cemal Kutay, Ferzan Özpetek, Dikran Kelekian, Yağmur Atsız, Nihat Behram, Celil Oker, Oya Baydar, Ferzende Kaya, Uğur Dündar, Refik Halit Karay, Murat Uyurkulak, Çelik Gülersoy, Mehmet Aktaş, Hüseyin Şimşek, Fehmi Koru, Duygu Asena, Orhan Miroğlu, Aydın Engin, Selahattin Çelik, Baha Targün, Etyen Mahçupyan, Kaan Arslanoğlu, Can Bartu, İlhan Selçuk, Rıfat Ilgaz, Ekrem Dumanlı, Ömer Erzeren, Murat Belge, Metin Göktepe, Mehmet Ünal, Esmahan Aykol, Ömer Çelik, Sadi Tekelioğlu, Erol Zavar, Harutiun Alpiar, Semiha Öztürk, Baydar Özcan, Nazlı Eray, Habib Edib, Kerem Çalışkan, Celal Özcan, Nursel Duruel, Tuncay Özkan,. Online finden Sie die kostenlose Aktualisierung der Bücher. Nicht dargestellt. Auszug: Orhan Pamuk (* 7. Juni 1952 in Istanbul) ist ein türkischer Schriftsteller. Er gilt als einer der wichtigsten Schriftsteller seines Landes und ist Träger des Literatur-Nobelpreises 2006. In seiner Erzählkunst vermittelt er zwischen dem modernen europäischen Roman und der mystischen Tradition des Orients. Sein Werk ist mittlerweile in 35 Sprachen übersetzt und in über 100 Ländern veröffentlicht. Auch sein im Wesentlichen menschenrechtlich begründetes politisches Engagement, mit dem er einerseits die türkische Regierung unter anderem zu historischer Aufklärung und Verantwortungsbereitschaft anhält und andererseits christlich begründeten Widerständen gegen einen EU-Beitritt der Türkei entgegentritt, zeigt ihn in einer beide Seiten fordernden Mittlerposition. Aufgrund ...http://booksllc.net/?l=de&id=8351 ... Read more

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Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Orhan Pamuk, Article 301, Yaşar Kemal, Elif Şafak, Ayşe Nur Zarakolu, Perihan Mağden, Ragıp Zarakolu, Michael Dickinson, Joost Lagendijk, Meltem Arıkan, Human Rights Association, Rtük. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: The White CastleThe Black BookThe New LifeMy Name is RedSnowIstanbul: Memories of a CityThe Museum of Innocence Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born on 7 June 1952 in Istanbul) generally known simply as Orhan Pamuk, is a Turkish novelist. He is also the Robert Yik-Fong Tam Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he teaches comparative literature and writing. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists, his work has sold over seven million books in more than fifty languages, making him the country's best-selling writer. Pamuk is the recipient of numerous literary awards, including the Nobel Prize in Literature 2006the first Nobel Prize to be awarded to a Turkish citizen. Pamuk was born in Istanbul in 1952 and grew up in a wealthy yet declining bourgeois family; an experience he describes in passing in his novels The Black Book and Cevdet Bey and His Sons, as well as more thoroughly in his personal memoir Istanbul. He was educated at Robert College secondary school in Istanbul and went on to study architecture at the Istanbul Technical University since it was related to his real dream career, painting. He left the architecture school after three years, however, to become a full-time writer, and graduated from the Institute of Journalism at the University of Istanbul in 1976. From ages 22 to 30, Pamuk lived with his mother, writing his first novel and attempting to find a publisher. He is a Muslim, and he describes himself as a cultural one who associates the historical and cultural identification with the religion. On 1 March 1982, P...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=403520 ... Read more