Memed My Hawk is the first book I read by Yashar Kemal. I don’t know why I haven’t read him until this time; I don’t have any excuses. Still, I think I read it at the right time. Maybe if I read it when I was a little younger, I wouldn’t be able to understand its worth.
So much has been written about Memed My Hawk that what I will write here will not mean much. I think I can only talk a little about how much it affected me. Yashar Kemal has such a sound that he echoes in you while reading the book. You will think that you already know this sound, you have heard it for years; It will seem so familiar to you. Yashar Kemal will explain the character of Memed, what happened in the village, rebellion, humanity and life one by one. You will want to lose and find yourself in this story. It is a novel to read in the silence of the night.
Yashar Kemal is one of the most influential authors of Turkey. You will want to read all the books of this great author if you enjoy his stories. Enjoy!
Memed My Hawk
Memed grows up a serf to a vicious overlord on the thistle-clad plains of Turkey’s Taurus region. When his plan to escape is dashed, and the young woman he loves murdered, Memed makes for the mountains to become an outlaw. Before long he has transformed from a young rebel to an infamous bandit, the scourge of corrupt oppressors and hero to the poor. With vividness and simplicity, Kemal’s classic novel evokes the fierce beauty of his country and the struggles of its oppressed people.
Yashar Kemal
Yashar Kemal was a Kurdish writer and human rights activist, and one of Turkey’s leading writers. He received 38 awards during his lifetime and had been a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature on the strength of Memed, My Hawk.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
