Yaşar Kemal’s “Yellow Heat” available in Persian

TEHRAN-The Persian translation of the book “Yellow Heat” written by Yaşar Kemal has been released in the Iran book market.

Aref Jamshidi has translated the book from Turkish into Persian and Raybod Publication has published it, ISNA reported.

It is Kemal’s first book, which is a collection of short stories, originally published in 1952. It is the story of the Anatolian people’s superhuman struggle against deprivation, hunger, and being forgotten. The drama of a handful of people’s clinging tightly to the thin bond between them and life and their efforts to survive amidst dirt, heat, and misery is told in several stories.

Yaşar Kemal (1923-2015) was a Kurdish writer and human rights activist from Turkey. He received 38 awards during his lifetime and had been a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature on the strength of his 1955 novel “Memed, My Hawk”.

An outspoken intellectual, he often did not hesitate to speak about sensitive issues, especially those concerning the oppression of the Kurdish people. He was tried in 1995 under anti-terror laws for an article he wrote for Der Spiegel highlighting the Turkish Army ‘s destruction of Kurdish villages during the Turkish–Kurdish conflict. He was released but later received a suspended 20-month jail sentence for another article he wrote criticizing racism in Turkey, especially against the Kurds.

He is one of the leading names not only in Turkish fiction but also in world literature with his astonishing imagination, his grasp of the depths of the human soul, and the poetic style of his narrative. He has had his works translated into more than 40 languages.

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