Louis Kronenberger, the editor of the "New York Times Book Review" described "The Forty Days of Musa Dagh" as "A story which must rouse the emotions of all human beings ... Werfel has made it a noble novel. Unlike most other important novels, "Musa Dagh" is richest in story, a story of men accepting the fate of heroes ... It gives us the lasting sense of participation in a stirring episode of history. Magnificent." Kronenberger also recognized the novel's filmic qualities: "If Hollywood does not mar and mishandle it, it should make a magnificent movie." Few realized that the English translation had been abridged to fit one volume and that controversial passages had been omitted, to streamline the narrative and make the book less offensive to readers. Other translations, among the 34 produced were also redacted. The book was never censored in a way that placated the Turkish government, which felt Werfel misrepresented what had happened in 1915. "The Forty Days of Musa Dagh" posed a small public relations disaster for the modern, secular Republic of Turkey of its president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who sought to distance Turkey from the old Ottoman past and the Young Turks who lost most of the empire during World War I. A film version posed an even greater threat.