Human Landscapes from My Country
Nazim Hikmet

An Epic Novel in Verse, Translated from the Turkish by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk, Foreword by Edward Hirsch

Written during the Second World War while Hikmet was serving a thirteen-year sentence as a political prisoner, his verse-novel, Human Landscapes from My Country, uses cinematic techniques to tell the story of the emergence of secular, modern Turkey by focusing on the always-entertaining stories of sundry characters from every social class. As vignettes of Turkish life flash before our eyes at movie-like speed, it becomes clear that the poet is also telling the turbulent story of the twentieth century itself and of the ongoing global struggle between tradition, which trusts in God, and modernity, which entrusts the world to human hands. This is the first complete English translation of Hikmet’s epic masterwork. 

“A human landscape of the twentieth century.”
—The Washington Post Book World

“A lastingly fascinating work.”
—Publishers Weekly

Banned in his own country for thirty years, the poetry of Turkey's foremost modern poet, Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963), has been translated into more than fifty languages. Today Hikmet is recognized around the world as one of the essential voices of our time.

Paperback / $27.95 (Can $33.95) / ISBN 978-0-89255-349-5 / 466 pages / Fiction / Poetry