The Idle Years

Synopsis

Orhan Kemal is one of Turkey's best-loved writers, with a standing equal to Charles Dickens in England. These are the first two semi-autobiographical novels in a series, set in the 1920s and 1930s when Turkey was undergoing major social change. The unnamed narrator grows up in an affluent household in an Adana village with his brother, two sisters, mother, and formidable father, a known political agitator, but the family are forced to migrate to Beirut on account of his activities.