“İblisin Oyunu”, romanlarıyla tanıdığımız Joseph Kessel’in, edebi kariyerinin ilk döneminde yazdığı, 1926 ve 1928 yılları arasında yayımlanan ve artık ulaşılması mümkün olmayan kısa öykülerini bir araya getiriyor. Yazarın Birinci Dünya Savaşı ertesinde çıktığı dünya turundaki gözlemlerinin ve tanıklıklarının yankılarını içeren bu öyküler, okuru Somme Muharebesi’nden Bolşevik Devrimi sonrası Rusyası’na, Kobe’den Hawaii’ye kadar geniş ve kozmopolit bir evrene sokuyor. Aynı zamanda trajik ve şiddet dolu olan bu evren, dramatik yapıları ve beklenmedik sürprizli sonlarıyla dikkat çeken öykülerde çarpıcı biçimde betimleniyor.
Author
Joseph Kessel was a French journalist and novelist. He was born in Villa Clara, Entre Ríos, Argentina, because of the constant journeys of his father, a Lithuanian doctor of Jewish origin. Kessel lived the first years of his childhood in Orenburg, Russia, before the family moved to France. He studied in Nice and Paris, and took part in the First World War as an aviator. Kessel wrote several novels and books that were later represented in the cinema, notably Belle de Jour (by Luis Buñuel in 1967). He was also a member of the Académie française from 1962 to 1979. In 1943 he and his nephew Maurice Druon translated Anna Marly's song Chant des Partisans into French from its original Russian. The song became one of the anthems of the Free French Forces. Joseph Kessel died in Avernes, Val-d'Oise. He is buried in the Cimetière de Montparnasse in Paris.
