Buy new:
-19% $16.19
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$16.19 with 19 percent savings
List Price: $19.95

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Friday, May 10. Order within 4 hrs 41 mins
Only 19 left in stock (more on the way).
$$16.19 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$16.19
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$11.99
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
Reading copy. May have signs of wear and previous use (scuffs, library copy, highlighting, writing, and underlining). Dust jacket may be missing. 100% GUARANTEE! Shipped with delivery confirmation, if you're not satisfied with purchase please return the item for full refund. Reading copy. May have signs of wear and previous use (scuffs, library copy, highlighting, writing, and underlining). Dust jacket may be missing. 100% GUARANTEE! Shipped with delivery confirmation, if you're not satisfied with purchase please return the item for full refund. See less
FREE delivery Wednesday, May 15 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$16.19 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$16.19
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the authors

Yashar Kemal
+ Follow
Edouard Roditi
+ Follow
See all
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Memed, My Hawk Paperback – April 10, 2005

by Yashar Kemal (Author, Introduction), Edouard Roditi (Translator)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 183 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$16.19","priceAmount":16.19,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"16","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"19","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"sVsaPGFP%2FaO0RoS%2F2KfafMl2N5EYUxi3zSYkjitD4Ck3lu2nC6xZegK9AawcO%2F5bKZDxGtx7rk0OWsqgKeLHgPxXuKAlg2ogkpkD85cNhllcANSj06rU77MRHwrA2vLdipCv24JEXY4%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$11.99","priceAmount":11.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"11","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"sVsaPGFP%2FaO0RoS%2F2KfafMl2N5EYUxi3AW0ojC%2BrGmC26V%2Fag99bje3K4qbb8O9AJiefaicTts06yF84Nbo3%2F%2FAnB%2BSvCgyAClFlcAMWqBsz5lxIhDKmAZQkz1JAjRvXlfgGHQwwExgeajcd1MQXfdKrJzCGN%2Bj54UgNS%2B%2BhmPAPZ7ThQc8bX7873SV29RYG","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

A tale of high adventure and lyrical celebration, tenderness and violence, generosity and ruthlessness, Memed, My Hawk is the defining achievement of one of the greatest and most beloved of living writers, Yashar Kemal. It is reissued here with a new introduction by the author on the fiftieth anniversary of its first publication.

Memed, a high-spirited, kindhearted boy, grows up in a desperately poor mountain village whose inhabitants are kept in virtual slavery by the local landlord. Determined to escape from the life of toil and humiliation to which he has been born, he flees but is caught, tortured, and nearly killed. When at last he does get away, it is to set up as a roving brigand, celebrated in song, who could be a liberator to his people—unless, like the thistles that cover the mountain slopes of his native region, his character has taken an irremediably harsh and unforgiving form.
Read more Read less
  Report an issue with this product or seller
Previous page
  1. Print length
    392 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    NYRB Classics
  4. Publication date
    April 10, 2005
  5. Dimensions
    5.1 x 0.8 x 7.9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    159017139X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1590171394
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now

Frequently bought together

Memed, My Hawk
$16.19
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
Only 19 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
The Time Regulation Institute
$26.90
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Snow
$10.99
Get it as soon as Monday, May 13
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Some books are so famous they need no introduction. But have you ever read Yashar Kemal? His first novel, Memed, My Hawk (NYRB Classics), set in the south-east of Turkey and about a young man at war with feudal authority, was published in the 1950s and brought him international fame. It is still greatly loved in Turkey, and with good reason." --The Guardian

“Yashar Kemal is one of those writers who is content with the patch of earth allotted by birth. As in the case of Faulkner, Akhmatova, or even Joyce, all the events described circle around the site of an early injury. These writers evoke landscapes containing people who, however lost they may be in their marginal existences, fix their gaze upon the center of the world and take up residence there. [Kemal is driven to] write against the age and to tell those stories that have not been elevated to the status of affairs of state because they deal with people who never sat on high, who did not dominate but rather were themselves dominated.”—Günter Grass

“Yashar Kemal is a thousand kilometres tall and can make a story of two stones tender and spellbinding. A master.”—John Berger

“A beautiful and passionate book . . . in the tradition which gave us Dr Zhivago and The Leopard.” —Glasgow Herald

“A tale that assumes epic proportions and gathers speed to rush to a spectacular climax.” -- Daily Telegraph

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

"Follows in that tradition of strong, simple novels about the life of the peasantry. It has that insider's feeling 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 seen for the first time." —Guardian

"Yashar 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 the Turkish soil." —Sunday Telegraph

"A masterpiece." —Robert Carver, New Statesman

“A remarkable novel, reminiscent of Hardy in its power and scope.” —Queen

“The sense of heroism, the animal tenderness, the marvelous feeling for the land, and the intuitive narrative rythm give the book raw vitality and pure immediacy.” -- Saturday Review

“Exciting, rushing, lyrical, a complete and subtle emotional experience.” -- The Chicago Sun-Times

“A folk hero worthy to rank with Robin Hood.” -- The New York Times

“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. It is a beautiful and passionate book. It has been ably translated, and it is well in the Harvill tradition which gave us Dr Zhivago and The Leopard.” --- Glasgow Herald

From the Back Cover

"Yashar Kemal is one of those writers who is content with the patch of earth allotted by birth. As in the case of Faulkner, Akhmatova, or even Joyce, all the events described circle around the site of an early injury. These writers evoke landscapes containing people who, however lost they may be in their marginal existences, fix their gaze upon the center of the world and take up residence there. [Kemal is driven to] write against the age and to tell those stories that have not been elevated to the status of affairs of state because they deal with people who never sat on high, who did not dominate but rather were themselves dominated." Günter Grass

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ NYRB Classics (April 10, 2005)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 392 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 159017139X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1590171394
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.1 x 0.8 x 7.9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 183 ratings

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Previous page
  1. Yashar Kemal

    Yashar Kemal

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

    See more on the author's page
  2. Edouard Roditi

    Edouard Roditi

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

    See more on the author's page
  3. Yasher Kemal

    Yasher Kemal

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

    See more on the author's page
Next page

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
183 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Daniel Myers
5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking
Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2006
Verified Purchase
This book is certainly an exhilarating page-turner! But not merely this: Lush descriptions of the Turkish countryside as it existed at the time, a cast of characters Tolstoyan in their sweep, and, above all, an epic story of a downtrodden hero---In short, the book is a Romance. It is not, though, the simple-minded, pat story that one sometimes associates with this term. It is a Romance in the sense that War and Peace and Don Quixote are Romances. The author goes to some pains in the introduction to explain why he has written this sort of book, instead of something dry and dispiriting as many of the works of, say, V. S .Naipaul are. If I could sum up these arguments, it would be that such a work as Memed, My Hawk touches on what is written in every human heart. And it does. It is ribald, comic, sad, distressing, heartbreaking---all the emotions, which, blended together, make up a human life. It is also, of course, more specifically, about a particular human named Memed, who embodies these traits in an heroic fashion. - I don't think that it belittles this book a jot to compare it to the movie Braveheart. I found myself reminded of this cinematic work more than anything else throughout the book---There are so many thematic and plot similarities. Let's put it this way, if you love Braveheart, you will love this book. But also, if you love War and Peace or Don Quixote, you will love this book. And I say, good and well, let's have the old pathos and lyricism back that made literature what it is. Let's not leave it to the dry hacks who warn us, like so many bloodless Jeremiahs, of the perils of following our hearts. Let's let literature be literature! ---But never mind me. Let's let Kemal have the last word:

"No matter how limited a man's field of vision, his imagination knows no bounds. A man who has never been outside his village of Deyirmenoluk can still create a whole imaginary world that can reach as far as the stars. Without travelling, a man can penetrate to the other end of the world. Even without much imagination the place where he dwells can become different in his dreams, a true paradise." P.77

So, go. Read and Dream!
18 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
exurbanite
5.0 out of 5 stars Deservedly a classic
Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2015
Verified Purchase
Yashar Kemal died only recently, on February 28, at the age of 91. Both his many amateur fans as well as hosts of professional critics felt that he had deserved the Nobel price for literature. The decisions made by the Nobel judges are politically driven and arcane, sometimes to the point of incomprehensibility. Numerous far inferior writers were awarded the prize during Kemal’s long career.

Memed, My Hawk, Kemal’s most famous work, was first published in 1955. It is an intense, intricately woven, often emotional yarn set among the remote villages, forests and mountains of Southwest Turkey a century or so ago. Its inhabitants, a largely illiterate and ignorant peasantry, still live under an ancient feudal system dominated by corrupt and brutal local tyrants. Their sentiments are swept backwards and forwards by irrational waves of gossip, piety, superstition, rumor, lies and obfuscation.

It is a fast paced, gripping and suspenseful story. Yet underlying it is a profound meditation on good and evil and their impact on a society. Good characters and bad characters emerge within the labyrinthine plot. Some are brave and some poltroonish. Some combine these characteristics or switch between them. A few triumph, a greater number perish.

In the impoverished and isolated communities of that era, life and death existed in close parallel. Often they intertwined, as did good and evil. The erratic and unexpected twists and turns of each defined the lives of the peasant villagers. These forces also etched the fate of the story’s hero, Slim Memed, an idealistic and heroic young man driven into the mountains and a life of brigandry by the savage cruelty of a mendacious local chieftain.

Memed, My Hawk has come to be regarded as a classic. I doubt that it is possible to define precisely what constitutes a classic novel. But I also believe that few who read this book will not find it belongs in that rarified category.
9 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
MK
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2017
Verified Purchase
Good book. recommended
Helpful
 Report
Remy Wells
5.0 out of 5 stars A great book
Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2024
Verified Purchase
This was a great book that I read for one of my college classes! It was a great work of historical fiction with a story that really captivates the reader.
Helpful
 Report
Anthony N Fragola
5.0 out of 5 stars A tale of rebellion and heroism and the conditions that led to banditry in old Turkey.
Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2020
Verified Purchase
This is a beautiful tale illustrating the harsh life in Turkey under a system of servitude. The narrative carries you along in a clear style that perfectly suits the tale of rebellion and heroism it narrates. I rate very few books and items, but this is one I recommend to anyone interested in Turkey.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Ol' Sorrow
5.0 out of 5 stars Cinemagraphic
Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2009
Verified Purchase
Thanx to the reviewer who identified the film version with/by Peter Ustinov (but an absurd British Hollywoodization). Yes, Memed reads like a script for a film by Sergei Eisenstein--but a very, very good book, as has been vigorously noted, in a poetic yet naturalistic style redolent of East European writers. It is a tribute to the forebearance of Turkey's ruling elites that the book not only was allowed publication in 1955 (during the cold war), but also was allowed critical acclaim. So vigorous a denunciation of a country's large landowners could not have been published in England or the U.S.A. in the 1950s (in 19c English lit., the bad guys are almost always the noisy working class; in this regard, read David Lodge's Nice Work). Yes, Orhan Pamul, Turkey's Nobel lauriate and a fellow Istanbulite, presents a different style and milieu, that of the sophisticated, urban intelligensia in witty and philosophical and naughty interplay.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Jeanajoan
3.0 out of 5 stars Not about a hawk!
Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2019
Verified Purchase
I thought this was going to involve a pet hawk! Not the fault of the book that I didn’t read enough before I bought it.
Fairly interesting view of a foreign society.
Helpful
 Report
Deniz Bilgin
5.0 out of 5 stars The Other Turkey
Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2014
Verified Purchase
Kemal's work is an incredibly sharp and moving picture of reality in rural Turkey. I would recommend this book to anyone who has read Pamuk but now wishes to understand Turkey as it is in small villages far from major population centers. Well written and memorable. The Turkish language in this book is true to its Anatolian core.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
Bbc
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best copies available
Reviewed in Germany on August 31, 2023
Verified Purchase
This is by so far one of the best available copies of this fascinating book.
Report
Anannya
5.0 out of 5 stars Blank pages
Reviewed in India on December 2, 2019
Verified Purchase
Does nyone of you have 5-6 blank pages at d end of d book?
One person found this helpful
 Report
Nelly
5.0 out of 5 stars If you love adventure books
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 7, 2017
Verified Purchase
Obviously who ever wrote the review on the back didn't actually read the book, or some editor changed imprisoned to murder. Anyway I'm not telling you what happened to her in the end it will spoil it for you, but this back page is misleading. That said, Yashar Kemal can't half write. If you love adventure books, you will love this. It is a masterpiece and I'm a fussy sod when it comes to reading, so take my word for it, this is probably one of the best books I've read, and definitely worth time out from your life to read.
3 people found this helpful
 Report
David Young
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on November 17, 2014
Verified Purchase
Essential reading for anyone interested in Turkey and Turkish literature.
Report
Therry Keasberry
5.0 out of 5 stars Therry keasberry
Reviewed in Spain on May 2, 2015
Verified Purchase
Recommendable ,excellente libro que fue recomendado para leer,una historia de como es la vida en aquel entonces Turkia ,de la gente pobre,de la gente rico y malo que se aprovechan de los pobres y del muchacho Memed que lucha con su poco edad para sobrevivir entre tanto miseria. Hay que leer este libro
Report