Memed, My Hawk

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Memed, My Hawk

Author	Yaşar Kemal
Original title	İnce Memed
Translator	Edouard Roditi
Country	Turkey
Language	Turkish
Publication date	1955
Published in English	1961
Followed by	They Burn the Thistles

Memed, My Hawk (Turkish: İnce Memed) is a 1955 novel by Yaşar Kemal. It was Kemal's debut novel and is the first novel in his İnce Memed tetralogy. The novel won the Varlik prize for that year (Turkey's highest literary prize) and earned Kemal a national reputation. In 1961, the book was translated into English by Edouard Roditi, thus gaining Kemal his first exposure to English-speaking readers. In 1984, the novel was freely adapted by Peter Ustinov into a film (also known as The Eagle and the Hawk). Until the publication of Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red and Snow, İnce Memed was the most well-known Turkish novel published after World War II.

[edit] Plot

Memed, a young boy from a village in Anatolia is abused and beaten by the villainous Abdi Agha, the local landowner. Having endured great cruelty towards himself and his mother, he finally escapes with his beloved, a girl named Hatche. Abdi Agha catches up with the young couple, but only manages to capture Hatche, while Memed is able to avoid his pursuers and runs into the mountains whereupon he joins a band of brigands and exacts revenge against his old adversary.

[edit] Praise

In the United Kingdom, the novel was described as "A Masterpiece" by the New Statesman and "A beautiful novel in the old, glorious tradition of heroic storytelling" by The Scotsman.