Book Presentation 'Nazım Hikmet: The Portrait of the Poet as a Scoundrel'/'Portrait du poète en salaud' (Les Argonautes, 2025)
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With author Nicolas Élias & Laurent Mignon (St Antony's College)
A writer sets out to chronicle the life of Nâzım Hikmet, the most renowned of Turkish poets - a bard of love and revolution - with the intention of dismantling the myth. He finds the ailing poet in Moscow, questions him about his gilded childhood in a defeated Istanbul steeped in nationalism, and traces his life through to his death in Soviet exile, where he once sang the praises of the ogre Stalin.
Spanning two revolutions, countless love affairs, poems, and betrayals, the novel immerses the reader in the vibrant and often tragic life of this towering figure - exploring both the brilliance and the shadows of a bygone era, when even dictators still cared about poetry.
Organised in collaboration with the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, the Middle East Centre and SEESOX (South East European Studies at Oxford)
https://argonautes-editeur.fr/publications-argonautes/portrait-du-poete-en-salaud/