Ferit Edgü was born in Istanbul in 1936. He is one of the leading writers of contemporary Turkish literature and has been publishing poems, novellas, reviews and essays in avant-garde periodicals since 1952.
His first book, »Kaçkinlar« (t: The Departed), published in 1959, is an account of an adolescent in search of his identity. Since then, Edgü has published four novels, one of which, »Bir Gemide« (1979, t: On a Boat), received the Sait Faik Award (the Turkish Prix de Goncourt) in 1979.
That same year, his book of essays entitled »Ders Notlarý« (1979; t: Course Notes) received an award from The Academy of the Turkish Language. Edgü is also the author of a volume of poems, and of a book entitled »Yazmak Eylemi« (1980; t: The Act of Writing), which is a scholarly work on literary styles, and he has written several books of essays on contemporary art and artists. He has also published the novels »Kimse« (1980; t: No-one), »Hakkâri’de Bir Mevsim« (t: A Season in Hakkâri), and »Eylülün Gölgesinde Bir Yazdý« (1988; t: Under the Shade of September).
A movie based on his novel »A Season in Hâkkari« was made, bearing the same title. The film, a Turkish-German co-production, received four awards including the Silver Bear at the 33rd Berlin Film Festival. Despite the great success it enjoyed abroad (i.e. Grand Prix at the 1983 Bastia Festival, and Film of the Month in Germany in August 1983), the film remained banned in Turkey but the book ran six successive editions and remained on bestseller lists for a long time. »A Season in Hakkâri« has been translated into French, German, Italian, Japanese and Chinese.
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