Anatolia Publishing

Dormitory 72 was the poorest dormitory in the prison and, like the poorest dormitory in any prsion, was the most squalid. The people in it had lost all semblance of humanity. The state-issued standart rations of one dark loaf each per day was all they had. This loaf would sometimes be stale and dry, sometimes be frsehly baked, yet it would inevitably taste like mud. The dark loaves..»»

The ash that settled in the water made the soap bubble up a lot. Her strong hands and wrists were covered in calluses, as were the hands of all girls who had spent their childhood working in the factory. Her fingers were crooked and the joints stood out. She pressed the laundry into the water rubbed it against the soap, then kneaded it and squeezed it, gripping it firmly between her t..»»

America! When the name came up I thought of the building a hundred stories high, memorised by staring endlessly at their pictures, pictured in my mind's eye the fat -bellied bosses of all the American movies I had seen, and thought of their cool woods full of large broad-leafed trees. In fact, I had learnt about America from ''Two Friends Travel the World***. I had wandered thr..»»

*** I didn't expect anything else, *** said my friend in the blue-overalls. *** You went and chose the heaviest work possible. No matter... As for what the foreman said... Now, that doesn't seem to have bothered you at all. I wonder why? He made some quite cutting remarks, didn't he? That was true... I suddenly realised that I hadn't been bothered by it. *** Because, *** he sa..»»

Bursa Prison, mid-winter 1940. Two Prisoners meet, both writers, both serving long sentences for allegedly inciting Turkish soldiers to mutiny. One is Turkey's most famous poet, Nazım Hikmet. The other is a young, aspiring poet, Orhan Kemal, who now finds himself sharing a cell with the man whose work he has long admired. Orhan Kemal in Jail with Nazım Hikmet examines the backgroun..»»