"This evocative biography reveals a towering figure who, up to now, has remained largely unknown beyond his homeland and the Republic of Poetry. Nazim Hikmet Captured the spirit of a new nation with simple but deeply stirring words, and also plunged into the great social and political conflicts of his age. Anyone seeking to understand the twentieth century will be anriched by reading the story of his passionate life. It is a tale full of beauty, and beautifully told."
- Stephen Kinzer
"Nazim Hikmet is one of the heroes of twentieth-century poetry. His work arrived to poets in the United States with a great rush of purity, power, and inspiration from a literary culture to which and a poet to whom we were all but ablivious. To have a biography of this singular monumental presence who, like Pablo Neruda, embodied so much history in a life of conviction, commitment, and passion for justice is another gift for which we should be grateful."
- C. K. Williams
"This inspiring and informative study can be read on many levels: as a critical biography; a post-biographical or postmodern biography; a treatise on language, poetry, and translation; a story of cultural exile; a love story that embraces many kinds of love; and a kind of literary investigative reporting that separates verifiable accounts from fiction and myth. Written by a leading literary critic and one og Nazim's most accomplished translators, this study of Turkey's greatest poet not only reads like a novel but also makes him come alive in its pages. Blasing's book is an outstanding contribution to Nazim Scholarship and a gift to his readers."
-Azade Seyhan
"This evocative biography reveals a towering figure who, up to now, has remained largely unknown beyond his homeland and the Republic of Poetry. Nazim Hikmet Captured the spirit of a new nation with simple but deeply stirring words, and also plunged into the great social and political conflicts of his age. Anyone seeking to understand the twentieth century will be anriched by reading the story of his passionate life. It is a tale full of beauty, and beautifully told."
- Stephen Kinzer
"Nazim Hikmet is one of the heroes of twentieth-century poetry. His work arrived to poets in the United States with a great rush of purity, power, and inspiration from a literary culture to which and a poet to whom we were all but ablivious. To have a biography of this singular monumental presence who, like Pablo Neruda, embodied so much history in a life of conviction, commitment, and passion for justice is another gift for which we should be grateful."
- C. K. Williams
"This inspiring and informative study can be read on many levels: as a critical biography; a post-biographical or postmodern biography; a treatise on language, poetry, and translation; a story of cultural exile; a love story that embraces many kinds of love; and a kind of literary investigative reporting that separates verifiable accounts from fiction and myth. Written by a leading literary critic and one og Nazim's most accomplished translators, this study of Turkey's greatest poet not only reads like a novel but also makes him come alive in its pages. Blasing's book is an outstanding contribution to Nazim Scholarship and a gift to his readers."
-Azade Seyhan
