A sure sense of setting is certainly one of the strengths of the Turkish writer Yashar Kemal. At all times in his funny and tragic story of a peasant who is raised up against his will to be a saint [Iron Earth, Copper Sky], he makes the reader vitally aware of the background—the mountains, the steppe, the huddled village, the forest. Indeed, these are not really 'background' at all: they are in there in the thick of it, conditioning events, limiting human action, rewarding some, killing others. Together with the elements, they constitute practically the novel's main character…. [Iron Earth, Copper Sky is a] title that gets its priorities just about right.

Peter Prince, "Intramural," in New Statesman (© 1974 The Statesman & Nation Publishing Co. Ltd.), Vol. 87, No. 2257, June 21, 1974, p. 894.∗