A beautiful novel in the old, glorious tradition of heroic storytelling.

'A masterpiece'.

'A tale that assumes epic proportions and gathers speed to rush to a spectacular climax'.

It has that insiders feelings for man, the oppressed, labouring animal ... you might find in Tolstoy, Hardy or Silone. The author never loses his freshness, an ability to pick on details as though see for the first time.

Yasham Kemal achieves the Russian quality - an intimacy of detail which makes his etching indelible, more selected, and therefore more obvious than life ... the book is a small, sharp, moving epic of Turkish soil

'Here again is that directness and that fierce poetry which one knew in the old heroic stories, and a hero in whom one can have such faith and trust that one can bear to read his torments knowing that he is strong enough to endure them. This is a beautiful and passionate book. It has been most ably translated'.

One of the great modern epics

[Kemal was] trying to find, to create, in his own country, a language for millions and millions of people whom no one's ever heard of, whom no one has ever spoken for, and who cannot speak

'A remarkable novel, reminiscent of Hardy in its power and scope'.

Marvellous