The Undying Grass is Kemal's eighth book of fiction to become available in English translation…. It is the third and last volume of his trilogy, which started with Ortadirek (The Wind from the Plain; 1960)…. The second part of the trilogy, Yer Demir Gök Bakir (1963), is also available in English: Iron Earth, Copper Sky. The concluding volume, Ölmez Otu (1969), now makes its appearance in English under the title of The Undying Grass, which connotes both the reference to the generic "everlasting plant" and the book's central theme—the indomitable spirit of the Anatolian to survive and to endure. (p. 676)

[The plot of The Undying Grass] is one of Kemal's most elaborate and complex story lines ever. The author has described it as the tale "of a people in the throes of adversity who make up a dream world for themselves and try to escape into it from the...