Murder in the Ironsmiths Market

In this independent first part of a new trilogy, Yaşar Kemal returns to the scene of many of his earlier novels: the fertile cotton-producing Chukurova Plain of his native Turkey. The action is focused around two powerful and noble feudal lords, or Beys, their families and dependents.

According to tradition, the lives of Dervish Bey and Mustafa Bey are governed by a blood feud that began generations ago with a long-forgotten offense. Indeed, as their world changes under the impact of industry and modernization, the blood feud is one of the last remnants of the proud traditions of the Beys from the days when they were the fiercely independent chieftains of nomadic Turcoman tribes. The sons of Mustafa Bey and Dervish Bey are more interested in tractors and income than upholding a faded ideal of honor, and the old me know that the feud will die with them. While they live, however, it is everything, and so their days and nights are filled with feverish, frightening dreams of revenge, and sometimes bloody skirmishes, as this powerful, lyrical story from Turkey’s most distinguished modern novelist builds to a shattering climax.