The novel production of the Republican

Era began in 1923 with ten novels,

reaching the impressive number of
350 per year, showing a significant
increase in the 2000’s. As much as
the volume of novel production, its
vastness within the cultural scope grew
as well. Novels and their authors now
pervade a larger arena as witnessed by
a consistent stream of interviews and
dialogues in newspapers, newspaper book
supplements, magazines, and at times
even television channels. In sum, a novel
explosion is happening in the Republic of
Turkey.
02 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY
ON MODERN TURKISH NOVEL
The novel production of the Republican Era began
in 1923 with ten novels, reaching the impressive
number of 350 per year, showing a significant
increase in the 2000’s. As much as the volume of
novel production, its vastness within the cultural
scope grew as well. Novels and their authors now
pervade a larger arena as witnessed by a consistent
stream of interviews and dialogues in newspapers,
newspaper book supplements, magazines, and at
times even television channels. In sum, a novel
explosion is happening in the Republic of Turkey.
First, I will consider Turkish novels –briefly– by
presenting some statistics: During the Republican
Era, 6,200 novels were composed by nearly 2,500
writers. According to my records, 4,800 novels were
written by 1,900 male writers and 1,400 novels by
600 female writers. It can be said that the number of
novels published each year was quite steady until the
year 2000. During the first seventy-seven years of
the Republic until 2000, an average of one novel was
published every week. Since 2000, an average of one
novel is published per day. The publishing volume
has thus increased by seven times.
When we consider that the number of novels now
exceeds 6,000, we see that the need to write and
read novels in Turkey is ever-present. What I want
to discuss is this very need itself. Throughout the
Republic’s history, this need has been a product of
the burning desire to address others, to speak, to
call out, rather than a passion for pure literature.
At times the wish to directly inform or illumine is
what fuels the writing. We know the reader shares
this wish as well. This common desire causes literary
considerations to be pushed aside and the story
emphasized.
What, then, do authors in Turkey write about?
Let’s try to classify novels according to types and
themes, and determine their striking tendencies.
Encompassing a great variety of literature, from the
A.ÖMER TÜRKEŞ
detective genre to romance novels, science fiction to
historical narrations, crime fiction to fantastic works,
post-modern plays to political texts, and displaying
diverse literary quests, these tendencies reflect
present-day Turkey’s interests, beliefs, mentalities,
desires, and anxieties.
The first striking feature occurring after the 1990’s
is the accentuation of historical storylines. Recently,
we have been witnessing a memory explosion, a clash
to re-arrange history in all branches of society. Via
memory, the past is consistently reshaped according
to the present’s needs, legitimizing day present. The
narrations of the First World War, Independence War
and the Second World War written in the past few
years also display the thoughts and perceptions of the
social groups influencing this trend and emphasize
the society’s points of unification and fission. To
sum up, the era’s cultural climate was influenced by
changing meanings of each societal group within
the Turkish Republic’s political spectrum, bringing
a need for new identities, as needs themselves
have been portrayed by the most straightforward
fiction. In that period a great variety of topics were
touched, beginning with events and figures both
on the macro and micro-levels of history, with “top-
down” or “bottom-up” approaches, reaching over
to pre-historic times up to contemporary history,
dealing with places from Asia to Europe, from the
North to the South. Not a single subject has been left
untouched.
Another important point is that novelists are also
interested in historical periods which have been
surrounded by a curtain of silence for years. The
Balkan war, migration, family histories, upsetting
events faced by minorities and the Kurdish problem
have been topics relevant to all social groups from
the 1990’s to the present and settling accounts with
history has been a major theme in a myriad of novels
in recent years.

Another characteristic of the era is the reflection of
Islamic and nationalistic movements in literature. As
these social groups that used to be marginalized in
literature now express themselves with novels, they
lead to an accumulation both in terms of numbers
and specific genres of novels. The accumulation has
once again been mostly in the historical novel genre.
Nationalistic groups are showing a great interest in
detective stories/crime fiction that revolve around
conspiracy theories.
Important is the increase in crime fiction that
stay far from political discussions and rather
concentrate on the internal dynamics of the genre.
The 1990’s were the harbinger of a “golden age” in
the domestic detective genre. New authors appeared,
numerous publishers added the novels of national
and international authors to their lists, and literary
magazines focused on genre writings. The many
detective novels written since 2000 prove that the
interest in the genre is consistent, and the genre is
not a passing fad in Turkish literature. In almost all of
the fiction that have been published in recent years,
we see an inclination towards relating crime, murder,
and mysteries to political and social life. Inspired
by the interrelation of politics, the mafia and the
police that emerged in the 1990’s, many writers have
started to write about organized crime.
For many years, the village and the countryside as
well as the outskirts of towns had a great weight
in Turkish literature. When we look at the modern
Turkish novel, a change in setting is evident. Because
of this, the types of characters have changed as well.
Now the setting is big cities, especially Istanbul. And
the plot revolves around the middle classes who live
in the big city, the existential troubles of the petty
bourgeois individual, of course accompanied by a
political, social, and economic background. These
novels touch upon the media, economic troubles,
the trauma of the war in the East and migrations,
elements of the criminal life –prostitution, mafia,
drug problems– in the backstreets of big cities.
The essential theme that has branded the recent
years’ novel is women. The novels that focus on
03
women tend to be set in an upper middle-class milieu
in big cities. There has been a notable amount of
novels about women who are devoid of financial
troubles, but cannot overcome their existential
problems and identity issues. Sartre, in his essay
“What is Literature” had said that the topic is chosen
by the reader of a book. We know that the novel
readers in Turkey are mostly middle-class women
who live in big cities. It can be said that to some
extent, authors lean towards the female world after
having inspected the reader profiles.
The number of novels dealing with social criticism
that has shaped our novels for many years has
recently decreased. Still, the literature of generations
who have witnessed the trauma of the March 12th and
September 12th coups portrays fractured life stories.
One of the most important new themes examined
by the Left is the conflict in the East of Turkey and
its consequences. It has become a principal leftist
topic to portray a region where violence has become
part of daily life, depicting people whose houses
have been burned, who have been forced to migrate
and subjected to aggression, executions without
trial, unsolved murders and hunger strikes ending
in death.
The writing of novels in Turkey has come to the
phase of morphing into an industry. Yet the sheer
quantity of novels has not been matched by quality.
Still, when compared to the past, a marked increase
in quality allows us more hope for the future. We
could only fit a fragment of this literature into this
catalogue; certainly there are numerous writers who
trace the steps of tradition in literature, take writing
seriously and perceive the novel not as literary play
but rather as the product of intellectual activity.
Furthermore –in spite of some negative trends– we
cannot disregard the contribution to our literature of
an emphasis on diversifying literary types, searches
for styles of narration and the reflections on the
fictitiousness of fictive texts; we cannot ignore
the resistance to the too popular and tabloid-like
subjects either.
04 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

AHMET ALTAN

He was born in 1950. Upon studying in various

middle and high schools, he attended Middle
East Technical University, ultimately graduating
from the Faculty of Economics at Istanbul
University. He took on journalism at the age
of twenty-four, assuming positions in nearly
all echelons of the profession, from evening
correspondent to editor-in-chief. Altan became
a columnist in 1987, suspending his career in
journalism in 1990 while still an editor-in-chief.
He worked on several television programmes.
Reprimanded for much of his writing, in
1995 he was sentenced to a year and a half in EN UZUN GECE
prison. He is presently the editor-in-chief of THE LONGEST NIGHT
Taraf newspaper. His first novel, Dört Mevsim Alkım Publishing
Sonbahar (All Four Seasons Autumn), was
2005
published in 1982. His second book, Sudaki İz
(Trace in the Water, 1985) was confiscated and 320 pages

burned via court order on charges of obscenity. ISBN 975-992-014-X

Persevering as a novelist with bestsellers such as www.urunyonetim.com.tr
Yalnızlığın Özel Tarihi (The Private History of
The Longest Night is the story of a woman
Loneliness, 1991), Tehlikeli Masallar (Perilous
who distances herself from the man
Tales, 1996), Kılıç Yarası Gibi (Like a Sword
she loves by coming to a godforsaken
Wound, 2001), İsyan Günlerinde Aşk (Love in
Southeastern countryside to engage in
the Days of Mutiny, 2001), Aldatmak (Cheating,
sociological research. In The Longest Night,
2002), and En Uzun Gece (The Longest Night,
as in his previous novels, Ahmet Altan
2005), Altan won the Yunus Nadi Prize for
accentuates gender relations, the pains and
Novels in 1999. He also has several essay
pangs of love, infidelity, sexuality, passion
collections.
and jealousy. He puts the vicinity’s exoticism
to use in depicting streets where melodious
Kurdish sounds mingle as they echo off
walls, where characters who undergo a
near complete change of emotions, if not
personality, cross the threshold of time into
another era.
 05

AHMET KARCILILAR

He was born in Denizli in 1965. He completed

elementary and middle schools in Denizli,
where local magazines published his stories.
He graduated from Ankara University’s Faculty
of Educational Sciences in 1987. Having been a
published short story writer since his student
days, Ahmet Karcılılar has been a prominent
novelist since 1998. Karcılılar, whose first
book, Yağmur Hüznü (Rain Blues), won the
Orhan Kemal Novel Prize in 1999, also penned
the novels Gülden Kale Düştü (The Rose
Fallen Fortress, 2000), Fotoğraf Hikâyeleri
AKREP VE SEMENDER (Photograph Fables, 2001), Akrep ve Semender
SCORPION AND SALAMANDER (Scorpion and Salamander, 2002), and Anonim
Doğan Kitap Publishing Kitap (The Anonymous Book, 2004).

2002

272 pages

ISBN 975-293-054-9

www.dogankitap.com

Following the example of post-modernism and

exploring the relationship between fiction and reality,
Karcılılar, who writes frisky texts, consistently utilizes
elements of suspense and tension that are particular to
detective novels. Scorpion and Salamander embodies
these traits, as it is based on the violent murders
that are encountered by a young and beautiful
policewoman who is an appointed guard at Topkapı
museum. Occurring in the claustrophobic atmospheres
of historical structures, such as the Topkapı Palace,
Basilica Cistern, and Dungeons of Yedikule –at times
under dim lights, and often inducing one to sense the
cold and dampness endemic to dark milieus– Scorpion
and Salamander not only conflates murder and
suspense, but, with Ahmet Karcılılar’s noteworthy use
of tone and diction, the work renders itself distinct from
classic pieces of the detective genre.
06 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

AHMET TULGAR

He was born in Istanbul in 1959. After finishing

the Austrian High School, he studied Political
Science at the University of Vienna, as well as
Western Languages and Literatures at Boğaziçi
University. He worked as a reporter, editor, and
writer in several periodicals and newspapers.
Currently he is contributing to the newspaper
Birgün. His essay style articles have been
collected in the books Tam Yakalandığımız
Yerden (Right From Where We Got Caught,
2004), Ne Olmuş Yani (So What?, 2005), Ben
Onlardan Biriyim (I Am One of Them, 2007).
Moving to the realm of fiction with his short VOLKAN’IN ROMANI
VOLKAN’S NOVEL
story Evsiz Ülke Hikâyeleri (Homeless Nation
Tales, 1989), Tulgar’s first novel Volkan’ın Everest Publishing
Romanı (Volkan’s Novel) was published in 2006
2006. He continues as a novelist with Fizik.
232 pages
Bir Bilim Romanı (Physics. A Novel of Science,
2008) as his latest book. ISBN 978-975-289-294-9

www.everestyayinlari.com

Though set around the current political events of Turkey,

Volkan’s Novel –an exemplary political thriller– does
not fail to examine the individual. The policeman, whose
life-story we follow through his blurry mental images,
is the mild son of a harsh father. The protagonist has
been shaped by a violence that has its roots in the family
and blooms in each echelon of society. This violence
has imprisoned him in adolescence, as he is devoid of
influential relationships that can enable his true self to
unravel. The more he turns apart from society, the more
difficult it becomes to achieve a conventional character
and mentality. Only when he faces and embraces his
own identity will he revolt, questioning what is real in
this world of conspiracies. Portraying the individual’s
political, ideological, and sexual development, shaped first
in the family and then society, Tulgar employs a unique
language that reflects Volkan’s psychological position.
 07

AHMET ÜMİT

Ahmet Ümit was born in Gaziantep in 1960.

He graduated from the Public Administration
Department of Marmara University in 1983,
then studied in the Social Sciences Academy
of Moscow between 1985-1986. He began to
write fiction with a collection of poems: Sokağın
Zulası (The Street Cache, 1989). His first novel
Sis ve Gece (Fog and Night) is a thriller. An
attempt to integrate the thriller and literature is
observed in his consecutive novels Kar Kokusu
(The Scent of Snow, 1996), Patasana (Patasana,
2000), Kukla (Puppet, 2002), Beyoğlu Rapsodisi
(Beyoğlu Rhapsody, 2003), Kavim (Tribe, 2006),
and Ninatta’nın Bileziği (Ninatta’s Bracelet,
KAVİM
TRIBE 2006). Also remaining a short story writer
during this period, Ümit has published a book
Doğan Publishing
of essays, as well as co-authoring a comic book
18th Edition, 2007 titled Başkomser Nevzat, Çiçekçinin Ölümü
384 pages (Chief Officer Nevzat, A Florist’s Death, 2007)
with İsmail Gülgeç. He writes children’s stories
ISBN 978-975-991-455-4
and screenplays for TV shows and also edits
www.dogankitap.com detective series. His novels have been translated
Tribe depicts a murder that revolves around into various languages.
mysterious events, and is to be solved by
the team of Chief Officer Nevzat, who is a
character from the early short stories of
Ahmet Ümit. Also dealing with elements of
Christianity, Syrian Orthodoxy, and Arab
Alevism, and with a setting stretching from
Istanbul to Mardin, this book portrays a
peculiar investigation that is set in the
depths of a flawed governmental order.
The murders committed are striking and
mysterious, but the truths unraveled by our
protagonists’ interrogations are even more
remarkable. They are very telling as regards
Turkey’s present and recent past.
08 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

ALEV ALATLI

Born in Izmir, in 1944. She earned a degree

from the Economics-Statistics Department of
Middle East Technical University. She went to
the USA for her graduate education, returning
with a PhD in Philosophy. While working in the
State Planning Organization, she also engaged
in research on theology and the history of
thought, focusing solely on her writing after
the year 1984. Alatlı’s published novels are
the following: Yaseminler Tüter mi Hâlâ? (Do
the Jasmines Still Fume?, 1985), İşkenceci
(Torturer, 1986), Orda Kimse Var mı? (Anybody
There?, 1992), Valla Kurda Yedirdin Beni YAŞASIN ÖLÜM
VIVA LA MUERTE
(Honestly, You Fed Me to a Wolf, 1993), Nuke
Türkiye (Nuke Turkey, 1993), OK Musti Türkiye Everest Publishing
Tamamdır (O.K. Musti Turkey is Done, 1994), 2001
Kadere Karşı Koy A.Ş. (Defy Fate, Inc., 1995),
628 pages
Schrödinger’in Kedisi – Kâbus (Schrödinger’s
Cat – Nightmare, 1999), Schrödinger’in ISBN 978-975-289-302-3
Kedisi – Rüya (Schrödinger’s Cat – Dream, www.everestyayinlari.com
2001), Aydınlanma Değil Merhamet (Not
The effort to fictionalize Turkey’s social
Enlightenment but Mercy, 2004), Dünya Nöbeti
psychology is observable in Alatlı’s novels.
(World Vigil, 2005), Uhnem, Eyy Uhnem (My
This topic is discussed most extensively in
Grudge, O My Grudge, 2008). The author has
the tetralogy Viva La Muerte, completed
also penned translations and essays.
in 1992-1994. Nightmare and Dream
explore the same matter in the light of
scientific progress, projecting it into the
future. Including all facets of society, from
socialism to social democracy, nationalism
to Islamism and group ethnicity, various
sects surface in “Viva La Muerte.” In this
chaotic environment, the female protagonist
is unable to find a place for herself, as the
society that is aloof to shared beliefs is
unable to comprehend her.
 09

ALİ TEOMAN

Ali Teoman was born in 1962 in Istanbul. Upon

graduating from the German high school,
he first earned a degree at the Faculty of
Architecture of Istanbul Technical University,
and then completed a Plastic Arts degree at the
Sorbonne. He has been working as an English
instructor at İTÜ since 1993. Ali Teoman, who
embarked in literature with short story-writing,
collected his stories in İnsansız Konağın İkonu
(Icon of the Desolate Mansion, 1993) and
Pervaneler (Propellers, 1999). His first novel
Uykuda Çocuk Ölümleri (Children Dying at
KARADELİK GÜNCESİ Sleep) was published in 2003. Bir Garip Cindi
BLACK HOLE CHRONICLES Zümrüdüanka (The Phoenix was a Peculiar
Sel Publishing Genie) is the author’s second novel.

2007

533 pages

ISBN 978-975-570-307-7

www.selyayincilik.com

Basing his narratives on concepts such as knowledge,

the senses, and time, Ali Teoman creates texts that
induce the reader to think, analyze, and understand.
Karadelik Güncesi (Black Hole Chronicles) is
meticulously written in this fashion with its ample
intricacies and pieces that complete one another.
Teoman at times evokes latent meanings with fictive
contractions, at times through the mystery of an old
text, and often with an eerie atmosphere that is the
result of his creation of setting. Before all else, however,
his consistently immaculate language pulls the reader
into the story, carrying him into a place where illusion
and reality are intertwined. Black Hole Chronicles
juxtaposes an obviously fictive story with quasi-absurd
dialogue and diction that keeps the reader curious until
the very last page, accepting the world within the work
as a brand new milieu in its own right.
10 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

ALTAY ÖKTEM

Altay Öktem was born in Istanbul in 1964. He

completed Kuleli Military School and Trakya
University Faculty of Medicine. He embarked
on literature by writing poetry. Öktem, who
has published several books of poetry, also has
books that survey fanzines, placards and demos.
Subsequent to his book of short stories Aslında
Saçları Siyahtı (In Fact Her Hair was Black),
he published three novels: Filler Çapraz Gider
(Elephants Proceed Crossways, 2001), Tanrı
Acıkınca (When God Gets Hungry, 2003), Bu
Kitaptan Kimse Sağ Çıkamayacak (No One Will
Get Out of This Book Alive, 2005). BU KİTAPTAN KİMSE SAĞ
ÇIKAMAYACAK
NO ONE WILL GET OUT OF
THIS BOOK ALIVE

Everest Publishing

2005

224 pages

ISBN 978-975-289-267-1

www.everestyayinlari.com

No One Will Get Out of This Book Alive develops around the compilation
of nine murder stories. The narrator of the book suddenly dies in the same
fashion as one of the murdered in his own story. Before he solves the
mystery, the investigating officer will witness several other murders just
like the one in the fictive piece. Altay Öktem narrates with a dizzying pace.
Just when the reader wonders how the protagonist will get out of this sticky
situation, it appears that this work is more than a detective novel. Öktem,
whose tropes are the foundation of this cryptic and complex enigma, uses
fantastical elements and alludes to other writers and characters from his
own books to question the relationship between fiction and reality, as well
as to assess the act of writing itself. Yet this is not a stale scrutiny; quite the
opposite, it is a curious and playful story with a cheerful tone – that is to
say, fiction does its questioning via the real world once again. Öktem also
does not fail to deliver small blows of the pen to social mentality as he pricks
it with his questioning.
 11

AYŞE KULİN

Kulin completed Arnavutköy American College

for Girls and worked as an editor and reporter
in various magazines and newspapers. She also
worked as a stage producer, stage director,
and scriptwriter in several television shows,
commercials, and movies. She translated three
books for Milliyet Press’ 20. Yüzyıl Dosyası
(20th Century File). With her collection of short
stories, published in 1984, she entered the
world of literature. Remaining a stage director,
she worked in a television series based on
the novel Ayaşlı ve Kiracıları (Ayaşlı and His
NEFES NEFESE Tenants) by M. Ş. Esendal which won the Best
BREATHLESS
Stage Director award. Her script for the movie
Everest Publishing Kırık Bebek (Broken Doll, 1986) was honoured
2002 with the Ministry of Culture Award. Gaining
fame through her biographical novels, and
372 pages
attaining high sale rates, Ayşe Kulin became a
ISBN 978-975-289-453-2 foremost name in popular literature. Her novels
www.istanbultelifofisi.com are the following: Bir Tatlı Huzur (A Sweet
Tranquility, 1996), Adı: Aylin (Her Name: Aylin,
Nefes Nefese (Breathless), which begins right
1997), Sevdalinka (Sevdalinka, 1999), Füreyya
before WWII, limns the underground efforts of
(Füreyya, 1999).
Turkish diplomats to save the Jews captured by
Nazis during the occupation of France. Developing
simultaneously in cities such as Paris, Istanbul,
Ankara, Marseille, and Cairo, this thriller is
based on actual events. The portrayal of these
rescue operations, train trips, as well as some
of the characters have all been inspired by real-
life encounters. Stretching from the 1930’s to
1943, Breathless depicts political developments
in Turkey on the brink of war, the government’s
diplomatic maneuvers, the animosity between
spies that reaches Istanbul, and the effects of war
on human beings.
12 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

AYŞEGÜL DEVECİOĞLU

She was born in 1956. In 1977, she dropped

out of Middle East Technical University due
to political reasons, working in newspapers,
magazines, and TV stations after 1986.
Devecioğlu, whose many articles and essays
have been published, emerged as a novelist in
2002. Initially, she published her works under a
pseudonym. Kuş Diline Öykünen (Echoing the
Bird’s Song, 2004) was the first novel that she
published under her own name. Ağlayan Dağ
Susan Nehir (Weeping Mountain, Silent River,
2007) is her second novel.
AĞLAYAN DAĞ SUSAN NEHİR
WEEPING MOUNTAIN,
SILENT RIVER

Metis Publishers

3rd Edition, 2007

264 pages

ISBN 978-975-342-586-5

www.metisbooks.com

Weeping Mountain, Silent River is an epic narrative regarding the despised

and disparaged gypsies who, facing various stereotypes and exclusion from
history, have met with great animosity everywhere they have gone. Eluding
those fictions created by traditional societal thought, as well as myths,
Devecioğlu tries both to comprehend the gypsies and to tell their tale while
keeping in mind the fact that she is not one of them. Related through the
female protagonist’s stream-of-consciousness and completed by nature
imagery, straying from a linear track between the past and the present,
and using flashbacks, the story encompasses a long historical period with
jumps from one time zone to another. For the narrator, the flashbacks are a
way of enduring the concept of time and the things it has made her forget.
Experiencing time’s wearisome effects on memory after the 1980 military
coup, the protagonist remembers a forgotten people and their past through
the eyes of a gypsy woman. Thereby, tragic events that belong in the Turkish
Republic’s recent past have been integrated into the story in all their horror.
This book received the 2007 Orhan Kemal Novel Prize.
 13

BEDİRHAN TOPRAK

Toprak was born in Malatya in 1958. Subsequent

to elementary and middle schooling in Malatya,
he attended high school in Ankara. He dropped
out of Istanbul Academy of Economics and
Trade, Faculty of Political Science when a
junior in 1982. He worked in publishing for the
periodical Yeni Düşün between 1984-90 and in
De Publishing, also engaging in documentary
movies, copy writing, and hostel management;
presently he works as a freelance editor. His first
article was published in Varlık (1982), his first
poem, in Yeni Düşün (1996). He continues to
write for periodicals. Toprak, who has published
DÜN GÖRDÜM GECE BİR RÜYA
two books of poetry, has been awarded the
I SAW LAST NIGHT A DREAM
Selahattin Kaya Prize for Novels for his Dün
Yapı Kredi Publishing Gördüm Gece Bir Rüya (I Saw Last Night a
2nd Edition, 2008 Dream, 2004). His other novels are Fanfa
292 pages
(Fanfa, 2005) and Köpek ve Şairi (A Dog and its
Poet, 2006).
ISBN 978-975-08-1378-8

www.ykykultur.com.tr

I Saw Last Night a Dream relates a day in the life of a

middle-aged man. The novel goes further than telling a
story; in fact it lets the reader watch this protagonist’s hopes,
fears, and fantasies. It delves to the depths of consciousness
and leaves its reader in the midst of a nightmare. During
this continuously dreamy story, the protagonist both lives in
the present day and goes in search of the past with leaps in
temporality; like the events he encounters, the thoughts and
feelings that result from those occurrences appear detached,
blurry, even absurd. Yet it is the nonconformist’s melancholy
that is reflected by each of these symbolic experiences. The
fear of death, alienation, feelings of desolation and nullity,
the heartbreaks that accompany an endemic lack of love
that we can all relate to in our communal lives, create
shadows that hover over the individual. These shadows are
transformed into nightmares in the novel’s symbolism.
14 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

CAHİDE BİRGÜL

Cahide Birgül Sesveren was born in Ankara. She

graduated from the Architecture Department
of Ankara State Academy of Architecture
and Engineering. Initially, she wrote plays
for radio and scripts for the Istanbul branch
of TRT (Turkish Radio and Television). With
her play, Emin Bey Pansiyonu (Emin Bey Bed
and Breakfast), she placed third in the State
Theaters Play Contest in 1999. She has lived in
Istanbul since 1993. Her first novel Gölgeler
Çekildiğinde (When the Shadows Draw Back)
was published in 1998. With her psychological
analysis of her characters, Birgül captured the GECEYE UYANANLAR
THOSE ARISING TO NIGHT
attention of readers and critics with this book.
Geceye Uyananlar (Those Arising to Night), Oğlak Publishing
too, has utilized the same technique, while Ah 2002
Tutku Beni Öldürür Müsün? (Alas, Passion, Will
244 pages
You Kill Me?, 2002) is considered a contribution
to Turkish detective novel genre. She has also ISBN 975-329-329-1
published a book of interviews.
www.oglakkitap.com

Told from the viewpoint of two siblings, a man and a

young woman, and using individual lives as a podium,
Those Arising to Night depicts the dark side of social
and political events in the Turkish Republic of the last
fifteen years. Without taking an easy way out, Birgül
deliberates on officers in her country’s “subtle regime”
without panning them. While not hiding the dreadful
dimension of the situation either, she accentuates the
human dilemmas of her characters through the medium
of literature. If it weren’t for Birgül’s application of
stream-of-consciousness and internal monologue
techniques; or her use of language and her profound
psychological treatment of her characters, or her
development of tension and curiosity in the narrative,
perhaps the events that the novel deals with would
appear less important, or simply recede. What Birgül
has to say is literary in its utterance.
 15

CELİL OKER

Oker was born in Kayseri, Talas in 1952.

He finished Talas American Middle School.
Continuing on to Tarsus American Private
School, Oker moved to Istanbul after
graduation. He completed a Western Languages
and Literatures degree at Boğaziçi University.
Having worked as a translator, journalist, copy
writer and writing for encyclopedias, Oker is
presently an instructor at Bilgi University. The
author started gaining fame when he placed
first in the 1999 “Kaktüs Kahvesi” award for
Detective Novels with his Çıplak Ceset (Naked
BİR ŞAPKA, BİR TABANCA Corpse). Giving life to the character Private
A HAT, A PISTOL Detective Remzi Ünal, Oker followed this initial
Turkuvaz Publishing book with an entire series: Kramponlu Ceset
(Corpse with Cleats, 2000), Bin Lotluk Ceset
2005
(Corpse Worth a Thousand Lots, 2000), Rol
366 pages Çalan Ceset (Corpse Stealing the Role, 2001),
ISBN 975-917-404-9 Son Ceset (Last Corpse, 2004) and Bir Şapka Bir
www.istanbultelifofisi.com
Tabanca (A Hat, A Pistol, 2005).

Devoid of direct political intentions, Celil Oker novels

exhibit a kaleidoscopic view of societal life. Each novel
in the series focuses on a particular work sector. A
Hat, A Pistol slightly differs from the other books
both in its name and lack of emphasis on a specific
profession. Yet the patterns that render Celil Oker’s
novels and his character Remzi Ünal appealing exist in
this work as well. Aided by ample experience, Celil Oker
expresses himself effortlessly. Remzi Ünal is a mildly
depressive antihero, timid in his social relations, easily
saddened or pleased, falling straight asleep after a
meal, monotonous in his habits, often cold or cowardly.
With our antihero, we dive into Istanbul’s wealthy villa
complexes at times, the dark streets of Cihangir now
and then, the ghettos on occasion, and scenes from
Beşiktaş, Kadıköy and Akmerkez in his final novel. Oker
makes perfect use of Istanbul’s criminal scene.
16 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

CEM SELCEN

Cem Selcen was born in Istanbul in 1962. He

completed elementary and middle school
in Bursa, graduating from the Mechanical
Engineering Department of Yıldız Technical
University in 1994. Currently, he works as the
manager of a nightclub, having replaced a
career in engineering with one in business. Still,
he is simultaneously engaged in literature. His
first novel 1578 – Bir Korsan Hikâyesi
(1578 – A Pirate Story), dated 1999, reflects
a historical era and its events on the basis
of a street demonstration; buttressed by the
question “who stole the money?” Selcen’s story
evokes a sense of curiosity that is particular to ELMANIN SUÇU
detective novels. In his second work as well, Saat THE APPLE’S FAULT

Kaçtır Acaba (I Wonder What Time It Is, 2003), Sel Publishing

the author focuses on crime, also utilizing the
2007
same style in his Elmanın Suçu (The Apple’s
Fault, 2007). 315 pages

ISBN 975-570-324-4

www.kalemagency.com

Leaning towards a discussion of human psychology, The Apple’s

Fault develops around a robbery; with depictions of intricate
settings, an engrossing plot, and a surprise ending, the book is
a typical Cem Selcen novel. Seen in his work is a fluid language,
an eye for detail, a clean-cut craftsmanship, and a sense of
humour that strays far from crudity. He handles temporal leaps
effortlessly with transitions that do not disturb the reader. His
narrative techniques have progressed even further in The Apple’s
Fault. Especially in the robbery scene towards the end, Selcen
creates a stimulating atmosphere with both the development
of events and a potent portrayal of setting. Uniting the robbery
scene with an account of the Central Bank building where the
narration intensifies, Selcen bolsters the novel’s background with
historical details about Istanbul, as well as the city’s nether sides,
and edifices within Beyoğlu and Galata.
 17

DOĞAN AKHANLI

He was born in Şavşat, Artvin in 1957. Due to

political reasons he immigrated to Germany
in 1992. It was in Germany that his career
as a writer was launched. Denizi Beklerken
(Waiting For The Sea, 1998) is the first book of
a trilogy he called Kayıp Denizler (Lost Seas).
The trilogy was completed in 1999 with Gelincik
Tarlası (Poppy Field) and Kıyamet Günü
Yargıçları (The Judges of Judgment Day), the
latter of which was translated into German and
published in Austria. Maintaining a position
as a Turkish guide in Cologne’s EL-DE Haus
MADONNA’NIN SON HAYALİ –previously a Gestapo headquarters and now a
MADONNA’S FINAL REVERIE Documentation Center and Museum– Akhanlı
Kanat Publishing also works on German to Turkish translations.

2005

340 pages

ISBN 978-975-8859-25-0

www.kanatkitap.com

Doğan Akhanlı has based his last novel, Madonnna’nın

Son Hayali (Madonna’s Final Reverie, 2005), on a book, or
better yet a character, Maria Puder, originally created by
Sabahattin Ali –a prominent name in Turkish literature– in
a WWII novel. If Maria had not died in the way Ali had
devised for her, what else would she be subject to in the
convulsive atmosphere of war? To answer this question, the
narrator calls on the memory for help. He, too, has endured
fascistic atrocities. Therefore times, places, and events are
all intertwined. Actually recalled is the genocide of Jews by
the Nazis, but murders evoke murders, bloodshed evokes
bloodshed, sorrows evoke sorrows. We face not only the
biggest sins of the 20th century, or Nazi heinousness, but
all facets of racism and any calculating government that
disregards human life. Madonna’s Final Reverie is a striking
novel about the crimes of humanity and the consequences of
remembering.
18 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

ENGİN GEÇTAN

Engin Geçtan, whose profession is psychiatry,

has written several books in his field, to which
even readers outside this occupation have
showed great interest. Wishing to leave the
boundaries of psychiatry, Geçtan began to
work on novels and scenarios, completing his
first novel, Kırmızı Kitap (Red Book), in 1993.
Following this book were Dersaadet’te Dans
(Dance in Dersaadet, 1996), Bir Günlük Yerim
Kaldı İster misiniz (I Have Space for One Day
Only, Taking?, 1997), Kızarmış Palamutun
Kokusu (The Smell of Fried Bonito, 2001), Tren
(Train, 2004), and Kuru Su (Dry Water, 2008). KIRMIZI KİTAP
In his two books of essays Geçtan also reflects RED BOOK
his perception of psychiatry, the present-day Metis Publications
public and human being, and times lived on
1999
the verge of chaos. In addition to his part-time
position at the university, Geçtan continues his 201 pages
clinical studies as a psychotherapist.
ISBN 975-342-235-0

www.metisbooks.com

In his Red Book Engin Geçtan tells a cheerful story that

manifests symbols of reality without veiling the fictive.
The setting is a European country, an unknown time and
an unknown town. In search of a mysterious red book, and
with the addition of characters from the depths of history, a
cat-and-mouse chase begins. These old timers mix in with
the novel’s characters, and the blood-feud amongst them
is only resolved when all the characters come together at
a gypsy encampment. Framed as an action-thriller, with
a visionary narration, allusions to other texts, names, and
writers, and utilizing techniques of post-modern literature,
Geçtan accentuates themes of coincidence, the individual’s
solitariness, and the difference between appearance and
reality. Prone to different interpretations with each reading,
and consistently recording any additional occurrences, the
cryptic red book is a significant metaphor for enlightenment
in the novel.
 19

FATMA KARABIYIK BARBAROSOĞLU

Fatma Karabıyık Barbarosoğlu was born

in Afyon in 1962. She began middle school
in Istanbul and completed high school in
Afyon. She then attended the Philosophy
Department of Istanbul University’s Faculty
of Arts, also earning her graduate degree
there. Subsequently, she became a doctor of
psychology with a thesis titled The Relationship
of Mentality and Trends in the Course of
Modernity to complete a major in Social
Structure-Social Change at Istanbul University’s
Faculty of Economics. She published several
HİÇBİRYER works in this discipline. Entering the field of
NOWHERE literature with a collection of her short stories
Timaş Publishing titled Acı Deniz (Bitter Sea, 1996) Barbarosoğlu
was selected by the Writers Union of Turkey as
2nd Edition, 2008
“Short Story Writer of the Year” for Her Gün
320 pages Akşamsızdır (The Day Knows No Night, 2000).
ISBN 975-632-952-4 Her first novel, Hiçbiryer (Nowhere), was
published in 2004, and her second, Fatma Aliye:
www.timas.com.tr
Uzak Ülke (Fatma Aliye: Remote Realms), in
Nowhere is the tale of a young academician in search 2007.
of his identity. Barbarosoğlu deals with a new stage in
the Turkish pastoral, namely its suburbanization, as
portrayed in the psychology, feelings and thoughts of
those torn between village and town. Emphasized by
the author is her protagonist’s inability to set roots in
either the city or the countryside; how travels between
places that are homogenized by a globalized, modern
world will not relieve the individual and how there
is nowhere else to go other than the spiritual realm.
Harboring numerous observations and assessments
about towns, villages, the individual and life, Nowhere
is a novel that derives from the stuff of reality, broken
and placed under a sociological lens to be re-assembled
as literature. To prevent the domination of sociological
jargon in the novel, Barbarosoğlu emphasizes the
characters’ thoughts and feelings in her narration.
20 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

GÜLAYŞE KOÇAK

She was born in New York in 1956. She spent

her childhood in Addis Ababa, completing
elementary school in Copenhagen, and middle
school in a Hanover gymnasium. She was
accepted as a visiting student to Hannover
Graduate School of Music and Theater. After
graduating from Ankara University’s Faculty
of Political Science, in the Graduate School
of Media and Broadcasting, Koçak worked
in her professional field; she continued her
involvement in music as an amateur member in
a group of chamber musicians, also performing
in concerts. She currently works at Sabancı TOPAÇ
SPINNING TOP
University. Having produced many translations
in the field of social sciences, Koçak’s writing Kanat Publishing
career began in 1994 with the novel, Çifte 2004
Kapıların Ötesi (Beyond The Double Doors).
284 pages
Gözlerindeki Şu Hüznü Gidermek İçin Ne
Yapmalı (What to Do to Efface That Sorrow in ISBN 978-975-885-911-0
Your Eyes?, 1997) and Topaç (Spinning Top, www.kanatkitap.com
2004) are her other novels.
With a plot that takes place in future times, Spinning
Top is considered a dystopia, portraying a society that is
torn, replete with boundaries marked by walls, affronted
women and stray animals that are violently lynched
in the middle of the street. It offers notions of love and
sexuality that are depleted in a place where the public has
concocted apparatuses to forestall our human senses of
sight, smell, hearing, and feeling. Koçak leads the reader
into a nightmare that absorbs the dire inheritance of
our present, that takes place in a future that is not all
too distant, in a realm that is not difficult to recognize,
with people who are more savage than perilous space
creatures. What creates the nightmare is not only the
narrated events, but the fact that they are omnipresent
ones, capable of occurring in our own lives at any given
moment. Koçak brings these societal conditions to life for
the reader in a portrayal that rocks the concept of time.
 21

GÜRSEL KORAT

He was born in Kayseri in 1960, spending

his childhood and early youth in this city. He
completed Graduate School in Ankara. He
began writing for various periodicals during
these years. He worked as a movie producer,
philosophy teacher, and freelance journalist.
He taught History of Turkish Language and
Thought in the Fine Arts Faculty of Marmara
University. Korat, who still teaches playwriting
in universities, published his first novel, Zaman
Yeli (Gusts of Time), in 1994. Proceeding as a
novelist with his Güvercin’e Ağıt (Requiem for
KALENDERİYE Pigeon, 1999), Ay Şarkısı (Moon Song, 1998),
and Kalenderiye (Kalenderiye, 2008), Korat has
İletişim Publishing
also written surveys, short stories, and essays.
2008

231 pages

ISBN 978-975-050-572-0

www.iletisim.com.tr

Kalenderiye is the third book in Korat’s Çiftaslan Dörtlemesi

(Double Lion Tetralogy). Confronting the history of Cappadoccia,
the book vigorously questions human reality via the crucial
curves of Anatolia’s past. Kalenderiye depicts the Kalender Çelebi
Rebellion that began in the spring of 1527 and was restrained
by the Ottomans through bloodshed. Though Korat provides
the reader with a sense of history with his portrayal of setting,
nature, people, and goods, he nevertheless does not exceed actual
historical events or undertake profound theses in ways that
might appear to surpass the realm of literature. Rather, Korat
leans towards those matters –the dilemmas of subversion and
subservience, for example– that bring together those people
who form the Anatolian mosaic, inducing them to stick together
despite their diverse languages, religions, and ethnic roots. The
characters of Kalenderiye voice basic human troubles, especially
the desire for freedom, in a way that concerns us all.
22 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

HAKAN ERDEM

Born in Oltu in 1962, Erdem moved to Yalova

with his family when he was six. He studied
at Boğaziçi University and Oxford University.
Having worked as an instructor at Boğaziçi
University between 1993-2000, Erdem continues
his academic career at Sabancı University. His
survey, Slavery in the Ottoman Empire and its
Demise, which was published in UK and the
USA in 1996, will soon be out in Turkey as well.
Erdem prepared Histories of the Modern Middle
East with Israel Gershoni and Ursula Woköck in
2002, and made a fast entrance into the literary
scene with his novels Kitab-ı Duvduvani (Book KİTAB-I DUVDUVANİ
of Cherry) and Una Mastica Ala Turca in 2004. BOOK OF CHERRY
His third novel, Zaman Çöktü (Time Collapsed),
Kanat Publishing
was published in 2006.
3rd Edition, 2004

404 pages

ISBN 975-8859-07-2

www.kanatkitap.com

Book of Cherry begins when Suat Ferid Ceylani Bey, a

286-pound, stately professor who has achieved fame and
money through the historical novel he writes, finds a
legendary history book. The way this book is read alters
the course of history, and any notes that Suat Ferid takes
about illusory people and events is added to encyclopedias
as part of reality. Now it is at the hands of our protagonist
to create history. Yet, this ability to arrange history and
the possibility that all his surroundings are unreal will
discomfort Suat Ferid rather than relieve him. Surprising
and amusing the reader with his ironic tone, Book of
Cherry parodies postmodern narrations where fact and
fiction are intertwined. Fantastic elements are mixed in
with references to reality; established time and settings are
ontologically liberated and tangible traces of life or history
are blurred.
 23

HALDUN ÇUBUKÇU

Born in Sivas in 1958, he attended high schools

in Divriği, Muş, Silifke, and Sivas. He studied
in various departments at the Universities
of Çukurova, METU, and Boğaziçi; yet he
didn’t graduate from any of these schools. He
embarked on literature with the publication of
his poems in several magazines. He worked in
publishing. He wrote plays, which were adopted
by the State Theatre. His historical novel,
Yıldızsayan (Starcounter) was published in
1997. Following this novel were Bütün Aşkların
Gömüldüğü Yer (Where All Loves are Buried)
BÜTÜN AŞKLARIN and, written in collaboration with Ezel Akay,
GÖMÜLDÜĞÜ YER
Yargu (Court, 2007).
WHERE ALL LOVES ARE
BURRIED

Gendaş Publishing

2003

463 pages

ISBN 975-308-412-9

www.gendas.com.tr

Where All Loves are Buried begins in a State Hospital room with its usual odours,
insects, and furniture. A man who suffers from amnesia subsequent to a car
accident opens his eyes in the remote, forgotten Anatolian town of Gülyazı, not
remembering his name, where he came from, where he was to go, or why there
is a generously written check and handful of hair in his possession. And once he
recovers, snow covers all the roads, leaving him confined in this lost town.
As in Kafka’s The Castle, to which Çubukçu alludes within his own tale, Where
All Loves are Buried ascribes meanings that transcends its own setting, calling
attention both to this and the possibility of a reading that is independent of its
own setting, as well as Kafka’s settings. When looked at through the lost and
neglected lens of sterile town lives and their lost and neglected inhabitants, this
increasingly “fantastic” country atmosphere becomes beautifully unified with
portrayals of nature and settings that depict human spirituality.
24 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

HALİDE EŞBER

Halide Eşber Ç. Güvenç was born in 1965 in

Bandırma. After Çamlıca Girls’ High School, she
completed the Classical Philology Department
of Istanbul University’s Faculty of Arts. For
a while, she studied theatre, design, and
puppetry arts. She has been trained in acting
on a scholarship in England. Venturing into
literary life with writings in various periodicals,
newspapers, and plays devised for the TRT
Radio of Istanbul, Halide Eşber’s first novel,
Yalnızlık (Solitude), placed third in the 1999 Bu
Press’ Young Adult Novel Contest. In her Sanki
Seninle Uzun Zamandır Hiç Böylesine Çılgınlar HERŞEY SENİNLE
Gibi Sevişmemiştik (As If We hadn’t Made Love EVERYTHING WITH YOU

This Wild for a Long Time), published in 2001, Doğan Kitap Publishing
each word of the novel’s title corresponds to a
2005
chapter of the work, as well as an independent
story. Proceeding as a short story writer with her 166 pages

Anlatırken Işığa Bak (Look into the Light as You ISBN 975-293-316-5
Talk, 2003), Eşber’s most recent novel is Herşey
www.dogankitap.com
Seninle (Everything with You, 2005).
Everything with You depicts a woman who stumbles
on love at seventeen, rises again, and stumbles once
more, the second time to an extent that pervades
her whole life. She remains in the luxurious life of a
callous, imposing husband. A mother, father, a sister
who violently competes with her, her sons, a platonic
lover, and a childhood friend who is worth a life in cost,
Eşber tells this woman’s tale without a chronological
scheme; she leaves its flow to the associations of
words, to a sorrowful melody that does not cease from
beginning to end. She reflects her character’s intense
grief and torn psychology both through sentences that
voice this mental stance and through a vacillating style
of writing that puts emphasis on severance.
 25

HASAN ALİ TOPTAŞ

He was born in Denizli’s Çal County in 1958. His

first collection of short stories was published
under the title Bir Gülüşün Kimliği (The
Identity of a Smile) in 1987; his second book
Yoklar Fısıltısı (The Muttering of Nonentities)
came out in 1990. With his manuscript titled
Ölü Zaman Gezginleri (Dead Time Travelers),
he won a short story contest in 1992. He was
awarded an Honourable Mention by the Ministry
of Culture in the same year for his unpublished
book Sonsuzluğa Nokta (Period to Eternity).
In 1994, he won the Yunus Nadi Prize for
UYKULARIN DOĞUSU Novels with his unpublished Gölgesizler (The
EAST OF SLUMBER Shadowless). With his novel Bin Hüzünlü Haz
(A Thousand Gloomy Pleasures), he won the
Doğan Kitap Publishing
Cevdet Kudret Prize for Literature. The author
2005
also has a book, Yalnızlıklar (Desolations),
229 pages which is written as poetic prose, a novel titled
ISBN 975-293-636-7 Kayıp Hayaller Kitabı (Book of Lost Dreams),
and a children’s novel called Ben Bir Gürgen
www.istanbultelifofisi.com
Dalıyım (I am a Hornbeam Branch). Toptaş’s
Whether you begin reading from the first page, directly last novel, Uykuların Doğusu (East of Slumber),
from the middle, or from the last page, Hasan Ali was published in 2005.
Toptaş has devised a labyrinth that leads his reader
to the same end each time. East of Slumbers is based
on the dreams of a boy, Hasan Ali Tektaş, who lives
in a haphazard Anatolian village. The remaining
characters, as well, endure through their dreams. Yet
the author has chosen the little boy’s quasi-innocent
perspective for the narrative voice: that broken,
ineffable gaze, instigated by terror, and unseen by
eyes that are tightly shut. Toptaş isolates one specific
moment in life in which he catches the individual and
society when they are almost frozen. As a result of a
glance through the cracks, he illustrates the general
characteristics of human lives that are confined to
a certain place. Hasan Ali Toptaş writes allegorical
novels, enriched by metaphor, imagery, and adjective.
26 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

HÜSEYİN PEKER

Born in Izmir in 1946, Hüseyin Peker earned

a degree at Istanbul Graduate School of
Journalism. Entering literature through poetry,
he has also written criticism and essays,
joining a group of writers around the periodical
Yordam. Peker, whose poems have been
published in prominent magazines of the time
and awarded various prizes, has also written
three novels: Yazıcı ya da Bir Yol Romanı (The
Scribe or A Road Novel, 1996), İzmirli (Izmirian,
1998), Eli Torbalı Adam (Man With a Sack in
Hand, 1999).
YAZICI YA DA BİR YOL ROMANI
THE SCRIBE OR A ROAD NOVEL

Yapı Kredi Publishing

1996

105 pages

ISBN 975-363-423-4

www.ykykultur.com.tr

The Scribe or A Road Novel (1996) tells of a monotonous life devoid

of any expectations, confined to the boundaries of the household,
work, the town coffee house or pub. We witness the story of Poyraz,
who is the appointed head of a bank in a small Aegean town, and
his resultant loneliness following the harsh ostracization by a town
with conventional values; also depicted are recurrent themes in the
author’s other novels: a dismal relationship, a fruitless marriage,
children astray. The author does not retain his reader’s attention
through a series of varicoloured situations, but by plastic, piquant and
striking scenes squeezed out of life; neither are there any extraordinary
commencements, nor any surprises or closures that first relieve the
reader, before moving her on emotionally. Portraying in all three of his
novels the desolation, alienation, and split personality of an individual
in society, Peker utilizes a language that is reflective of the characters’
spiritual states. He depicts a torn identity and a torn conscious by way
of broken sentences and dialogues that turn into monologues, and
often enriches the text with imagistic words.
 27

HÜSNÜ ARKAN

He was born in 1958 in Kınık. After spending

three years in the Faculty of Architecture of
Ankara State Academy of Architecture and
Engineering, where he went for his higher
education, he transferred to the faculty of
law. He lived in Amsterdam for a while in the
80’s. With a music group he established, he
performed in many concerts. Returning to
Turkey after an album of his own lyrics called A
Melody of Loneliness (1991), he joined a music
group called “Melody’s Diary.” Ölü Kelebeklerin
Dansı (Dance of the Dead Butterflies, 1998)
UZUN BİR YOLCULUĞUN was his first published novel. Menekşeler Atlar
BİTTİĞİ YER
Oburlar (Violets, Horses, Gluttons, 2001) and
WHERE A LONG JOURNEY
ENDS Uzun Bir Yolculuğun Bittiği Yer (Where a Long
Journey Ends, 2005) followed.
Yapı Kredi Publishing

2005

292 pages

ISBN 975-08-11020-1

www.ykykultur.com.tr

Encompassing two historical periods, one recent, the other in the distant
past, Where a Long Journey Ends is told from the perspective of two
characters: Abdülhalim falls into the overwhelming march of history
during WWI and can no longer return to Istanbul, to his family and home;
Enver Rıza is his journalist great-grandson who finds it difficult to direct
his individual destiny in times approaching the 1980 military coup. Arkan
captures the dialectic between history and the human being in his portrayal
of the two men’s stories, also setting up parallels to depict a centuries-long,
sanguinary history. Stretching to Russia’s October Revolution via the great-
grandfather’s memories, the great-grandson lets the reader witness the
social and political circumstances of Turkey in the 70’s. Both tackle these
extraordinary events as individuals, with their loves, hopes and despairs,
griefs and losses. Skillfully mirroring the catastrophes of war and violence,
Where a Long Journey Ends is a striking novel not for its story and style
alone, but for its language as well.
28 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

İBRAHİM YILDIRIM

He was born in Istanbul in 1950. He first became

involved in literature with the publication
of his various short stories and poems. His
work was marked praiseworthy in the 1980
Abdi İpekçi Novel Contest. He wrote essays in
literary magazines between 1984-1988. He
published a collection of stories, Bir Cinayetin
Ekonomisi (The Economy of a Murder, 1987),
and created a magazine for short-stories.
Kuşevi’nin Efendisi (Lord of the Birdnest,
2000) is the first novel of a trilogy he called
Eylül’den Sonra (After September). Yıldırım,
who completed this trilogy with Yaralı Kalmak BIÇKIN VE ORTA HALLİ
(Remaining Wounded, 2001) and Bıçkın ve Orta RUFFIAN AND MIDDLE CLASS

Halli (Ruffian and Middle Class, 2003), also Yapı Kredi Publishing
published Vatan Dersleri (Motherland Lessons)
2003
in 2006. The author put out an e-book, titled
Kumcul (Sand Sprout, 2000) as well. 470 pages

ISBN 975-080-623-9

www.kalemagency.com

Completing one another, though independent nevertheless,

the books of Yıldırım’s September Trilogy portray the
devastation created by the September 12, 1980 military
coup on society and the individual. Enriched by several
side stories, the series’ most successful book, the 470-page
Ruffian and Middle Class, looks at post-coup trauma in
the cultural climate of the 80’s. In this novel, İbrahim
Yıldırım succeeds in revealing the nightmare of public lives
by means of the depressing, dark, and timid atmosphere
that he creates. We enter a world rich in metaphor and
imagery through the characters’ pathological psychology.
Abandoning linear time with transitions between eras,
ties made to the past via flashbacks, scattered clues that
foreshadow some future events, the portrayal of individual
metamorphoses in thought and feeling, and the murder
story it harbours, make Ruffian and Middle Class a head-
spinning novel.
 29

İHSAN OKTAY ANAR

Born in 1959, he completed high school in Izmir,

then entering the Faculty of Arts, Department
of Philosophy at Ege University. He was enrolled
in the graduate programme of the same
department. He examined the Ancient Greek
era in his undergraduate and PhD theses. He
is still a faculty member at Ege University.
Involved in literature in addition to his academic
studies, Anar’s first novel, Tamu (Hell), was
not published but his later books, Puslu Kıtalar
Atlası (Atlas of Misty Continents, 1995) and
Kitab-ül Hiyel (Book of Mechanics, 1996) found
SUSKUNLAR many readers. He then became one of the most
THE MUTE popular authors of the country. He carried on his
İletişim Publishing distinctive style in Efrâsiyâb’ın Hikâyeleri (Tales
of Efrâsiyâb, 1998), Amat (Amat, 2005), and
2007
Suskunlar (The Mute, 2007).
269 pages

ISBN 975-050-538-6

www.istanbultelifofisi.com

The Mute is a mirthful, fantastic, and philosophical novel,

taking place during the Ottoman reign. It is a novel of music,
the passion felt for music, voices that murmur even in the
silence, the creative breath blown to human beings, the clash
between good and evil. In fact, with these aforementioned
traits, the correct genre might be stories rather than novel
– stories bursting with a rich, humourous, and shocking
imagination. We witness Istanbul’s ghettos at times, and
mansions belonging to Pashas at others. These stories set in
a particular time and setting resemble detective fiction with
their unresolved murders and metaphysical, mystical, and
fantastic elements. Drawing on a vast panorama of Istanbul
that stretches from Dervish houses to lute player gatherings,
eerie dungeons to inns sheltering gangs, slave markets to
the Galata Stock Market, reverberating in The Mute are
the voices of a people who are made slaves to silence by the
weight of their history.
30 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

İNCİ ARAL

Aral was born in Denizli in 1944. She completed

Manisa Primary Education School and the Arts
and Crafts Department of the Gazi Institute
of Education serving as a teacher in Samsun,
Manisa, and Izmir, as well as at the Gazi
Institute of Education. From 1977 onwards
she began writing short stories that were
published in magazines. Her first collection
of stories, Ağda Zamanı (Leg Waxing Time),
won the 1980 Akademi Press Achievement
Award. Kıran Resimleri (Pictures of Death,
1983) in which the violent events that took
place in Kahramanmaraş are depicted, won the TAŞ VE TEN
Nevzat Üstün Short Story Award. This book was STONE AND FLESH

translated into French and published in 1989. Turkuvaz Publishing

The Yunus Nadi Prize for Novels, which she won
2007
for Ölü Erkek Kuşlar (Dead Male Birds) in 1992,
was another addition to her awards. Aral, who 260 pages

also writes essays, memoirs, and stories, is the ISBN 994-486-025-3

author of Yeni Yalan Zamanlar (Times of New
Lies, 1994), Hiçbir Aşk Hiçbir Ölüm (No Love No
Death, 1997), İçimden Kuşlar Göçüyor (Birds
Migrate from within Me, 1998), Mor (Purple,
2003), and Taş ve Ten (Stone and Flesh, 2005).
www.istanbultelifofisi.com
Stone and Flesh begins and ends within a short
time frame. The life of a female sculptor, nearing
50, with its intellectual, emotional, and sensual
ebb and flow, is portrayed through flashbacks.
The personal disentanglements, loss of common
values among people, lack of communication
in relationships, and the resultant individual/
societal ruin that we see in such previous novels
as Times of New Lies and Purple, all reappear in
Stone and Flesh. Yet, İnci Aral does not intricately
delve into all this idly, she tells the story of
transitions in the life of a woman whose existence
is determined by relationships she has entered
into with the opposite sex, relationships that
oscillate between a mental-emotional quandary.
 31

İSMAİL GÜZELSOY

He was born in Iğdır in 1963, and spent his

childhood and early youth in Istanbul. He
attended Istanbul University’s Graduate School
of Journalism and Broadcasting, entering
the world of literature with his collection
of stories, Seni Seziyorum (I Sense You), in
2000. Integrating action into literature, these
stories serve as the harbinger of an author who
values textual journeys, secrets that crack open
the door of reality, the magic of fiction, and
sensuously told tales. After his first novel Ruh
Hastası (Psychopath, 2004), İsmail Güzelsoy
RUKAS: PERDE AÇILIYOR gained critical acclaim with Sincap (Squirrel,
RUKAS: THE CURTAIN IS 2005), Rukas: Perde Açılıyor (Rukas: The
RAISED
Curtain is Raised, 2006), and İyi Yolculuklar
Everest Publishing (Have a Good Trip, 2007).
2006

200 pages

ISBN 978-975-289-286-8

www.everestyayinlari.com

The protagonist of Rukas: The Curtain is Raised is Rukas, who

sixteen years earlier tore his dead wife’s body into pieces and
spread it over Istanbul so that it might become one with nature.
The cunning politician Tufan takes advantage of the situation,
using everything in his power to find Rukas, and finally reaches
him by the help of Salih Sartuk, famed for his ability to detect
counterfeit money. So it will not be revealed that there is actually
no murder; Tufan has set up various traps, getting Salih, who
knows the truth, killed, and getting Rukas to serve a sentence
of sixteen years. When released, Rukas both wants to satisfy his
thirst for revenge and fulfill his hunger for justice.
Though Güzelsoy side tracks, he never impairs the actual path,
never loses tempo, and keeps the enigma alive until the very end.
He has resorted to many forms of wordplay and obscurity, without
overstepping the author-reader contract.
32 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

LATİFE TEKİN

Latife Tekin was born in 1957 in Karacafenk

Village of Kayseri’s Bünyan district. At the age
of eight, she migrated to Istanbul with her
family. She completed her secondary education
in Beşiktaş Girl’s School. For a short time,
she worked in the directorate of Istanbul’s
telephone company. Partially based on her
own life story and told in the language of a
fairy tale, her first novel, Sevgili Arsız Ölüm
(Dear Shameless Death, 1983), received great
attention. Subsequently, Berci Kristin Çöp
Masalları (Berji Kristin: Tales from the Garbage
Hills, 1984), Gece Dersleri (Night Lessons, ORMANDA ÖLÜM YOKMUŞ
1986), Buzdan Kılıçlar (Swords of Ice, 1989), SO THERE’S NO DEATH IN THE
WOODS
Aşk İşaretleri (Signs of Love, 1995), Ormanda
Ölüm Yokmuş (So There’s No Death in the Everest Publishing

Woods, 2001), Unutma Bahçesi (Garden of 2002

Lethe, 2004) and Muinar (Muinar, 2006) were
185 pages
published. Latife Tekin, whose novels have
been translated into English, German, French, ISBN 978-975-289-056-7

Italian, Persian, and Dutch, presently oversees www.istanbultelifofisi.com

a “House of Literature” in Gümüşlük, Bodrum
where all are invited to come to write, talk and
produce.
So There’s No Death in the Woods depicts the tale of
two friends in their 30’s, Yasemin and Emin, whose
painful and disappointing end to their love, as well
as their grapple with friendship and the notion of
love itself, come alive in a charged atmosphere. It
is possible to assume that in this novel composed of
two characters and a single setting, Latife Tekin’s
attempt was to map the difference of perception,
feelings, and thoughts between men and women. She
processes her material through feelings and thoughts
that are fractured within symbols, metaphors,
and consciousness. Abstract notions that carry the
potential to be heartbreaking, or blurred, or to lean
towards melodrama and become shallow if told in a
different manner are penned skillfully by Latife Tekin.
 33

LEVENT METE

Levent Mete was born in Izmir in 1958. He

completed Ankara High School of Sciences and
Hacettepe Faculty of Medicine, specializing in
the field of psychiatry. He works in an Izmir
hospital as an Associate Professor. Levent
Mete, whose many articles have been published
in scientific magazines and newspapers, has
followed books in his field of expertise with the
publication of novels titled, Aşk Romanları
Yazan Adam (The Man Who Writes Romances,
2000), Terapi (Therapy, 2002), Büyücüler
(Sorcerers, 2003), Rika’nın Beyninde (In Rika’s
RİKA’NIN BEYNİNDE Brain, 2005), and Aşk Hastalığı (Love Sickness,
IN RIKA’S BRAIN 2007).
Can Sanat Publishing

2005

206 pages

ISBN 975-07-0469-X

www.kalemagency.com

Displaying a different style in each novel, Levent Mete devises a dark

future in In Rika’s Brain. In Mete’s novels, where his background in
psychiatry is evident, we witness the characters sauntering amidst
the dark and perilous labyrinths of the tangled human mind. In
mountains, meadows, lakes, seas, and, at times, in eerie cities of the
mind, the journey proceeds over dark rivers filled with beasts that
are ready to gulp down the travelers. Each place, each object, and
each creature is broken upon the consciousness of corporeal reality;
each is bent, twisted, mixed in and morphed into the reflection of
other significances. However, the issue at stake is not to portray the
topographical features of the subconscious. Enriching with ethical
and political matters the thrill and curiosity of travel novels that focus
on voyages to the unknown, Levent Mete carries to the future our
present existence within capitalism, an existence from which science
and technology derive both their potency and legitimacy. He takes
the reader for a walk in the cracks of the ideology that makes this
legitimacy possible.
34 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

LEYLÂ ERBİL

She was born in Istanbul in 1931, educated in

the English Literature Department, Faculty
of Arts at Istanbul University. She worked
in various places. Beginning with her first
stories, published in 1956, she developed a
progressive style and a dissident attitude
facilitated by psychoanalytical methods.
Holding office in the TIP Bureau of Arts
and Culture after 1961, Erbil was one of the
founders of the Artists Union of Turkey in
1970, and the Writers Syndicate of Turkey in
1974. When she was nominated for the Nobel
Prize by the Turkish PEN in 2002 and 2004, CÜCE
her status as a responsible luminary was DWARF

emphasized in addition to the literary value Kanat Publishing

of her works. Besides her stories and essays,
2nd Edition, 2008
Erbil has published the novels Tuhaf Bir
Kadın (A Bizarre Woman, 1971), Karanlığın 196 pages

Günü (The Day of Darkness, 1985), Mektup ISBN 975-885-976-4

Aşkları (Letter Loves, 1988), Cüce (Dwarf,
2002), and the novella Üç Başlı Ejderha
(Three-Headed Dragon, 2005).
www.onkagency.com
Dwarf has two intertwined tales. One is based on the
notes of a woman who has committed suicide, the
other, on the thoughts of a writer who has received
these notes. The writer character is a woman who,
while awaiting a journalist that will interview her,
contemplates on writing, on waiting, and on the
possibility of becoming a writer. As thoughts evoke
other thoughts she is lead to a squaring off with herself
and all that surrounds her. With song lyrics, riddles,
associations, and her usual stream-of-consciousness
technique, Erbil relates the criticism of an individual
who does not have the accoutrement to pay the price
of faults that are not her own, but imposed on her
nevertheless; an individual who grows more and more
destroyed as she experiences an ethical erosion each
time she succumbs to the world.
 35

MAHMUT ŞENOL

He was born in Istanbul in 1958, completing

elementary and high schools in this city. He was
introduced to journalism when an Economics
major at the university. He worked in the media
sector for a while. Migrating to the USA in 1998,
Mahmut Şenol participated in political science
courses at Purdue University as a guest student.
When working at CBS TV’s Local News Channel,
he also sent articles and interviews to the
Turkish press. He became the US representative
of Açık newspaper. After writing the novels
Phaselis Adağı (The Offering of Phaselis), Bay
ÇERKES ÂDİL PAŞA’NIN Konsolos (Sir Consul), Çerkes Âdil Paşa’nın
TAHSİLDARLIK GÜNLERİ Tahsildarlık Günleri (The Tax Collecting Days of
THE TAX COLLECTING DAYS OF
Âdil Pasha the Circassian) in the USA he settled
ÂDIL PASHA THE CIRCASSIAN
in Turkey in 2007.
Papirüs Publishing

2004

488 pages

ISBN 975-874-794-8

www.papiruskitap.com

Depicting the charming adventures of an Istanbul nobleman, Âdil

Bey, who moves to a suburban town to establish a farm with the large
inheritance he has received, The Tax Collecting Days of Âdil Pasha
the Circassian was awarded first place for the 2008 Yunus Nadi Prize
for Novels. Bored with the country’s conservative atmosphere, having
difficulty in communicating, and continuing a loveless marriage with
a woman who does not understand him, Âdil Bey will take refuge in
the lavish world of the novel and desire to be in this realm instead. He
finally gets this chance. By means of this modest journey, Mahmut
Şenol tilts towards Anatolia in the 40’s and the most shameful
implementations in the history of the Republic, the Capital Tax.
Approaching the topic through humour, though every now and then
reflecting its dismal face, and concluding with a striking end, The Tax
Collecting Days of Âdil Pasha the Circassian is a solid example of the
union of literature with historical facts.
36 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

MEHMET AÇAR

Açar was born in Konya in 1963. After finishing

Galatasaray High School, he earned a degree
at Boğaziçi University, Department of Western
Languages and Literatures. Beginning in
1991, he worked for several magazines,
simultaneously writing movie critiques and
serving as the editor-in-chief of Sinema
magazine for 13 years. Currently, he works as
the editor-in-chief of Digiturk magazine and as
the head of the Turkish Film Critics Association.
Mehmet Açar’s first book, Anarşik Rehavet
(Anarchic Languor) is a collection of his short
stories published in the magazine Hayalet Gemi
between the years 1994-1997. Siyah Hatıralar SİYAH HATIRALAR DENİZİ
SEA OF BLACK MEMORIES
Denizi (Sea of Black Memories, 2000) and
Akhisar’lı Hasan Tütün’ün Maceraları ya da İthaki Publishing
Hayatın Anlamı (The Adventures of Hasan 2005
Tütün of Akhisar, or The Meaning of Life, 2005)
382 pages
are Açar’s two novels.
ISBN 975-273-150-3

www.ithaki.com.tr

Portraying a dark fictive future, Sea of Black Memories appears

to fit in the sci-fi and detective genres as regards its structure.
Yet, in this text are found mysteries, secrets of the present and
the future, of life, of the meaning of existence, of feelings. If you
have ever watched science-fiction movies, or classic thrillers,
if you have ever read Ursula LeGuin’s or Stanislav Lem’s novels
or Borges’ stories, you’ll find the atmosphere and metaphors of
Mehmet Açar’s novel familiar. Standing foremost in the center of
this novel, however, is Kafka’s The Castle. Açar directs his reader
to sunder the framework of rational thought and perception of
time, for it is impossible to encompass what happens at Ennolia
Hotel within traditional paradigms of language and thought. The
reader, too, must leave behind prejudices as regards the material
world in order to walk about the pleasant atmosphere of the
2130’s along with the author and his protagonist.
 37

MEHMET ANIL

Mehmet Anıl was born in 1962 in Izmir. He

completed high school at Saint Joseph College,
subsequently graduating from the Faculty of
Economics and Administrative Sciences of Ege
University. After an internship on a scholarship
at Italy’s Credito Italiano Bank, he returned to
Turkey. He worked in trade for a while, and has
been involved solely in literature since the year
2001.

GERİ GELMEMEK ÜZERE

NEVER TO RETURN

Can Sanat Publishing

2003

280 pages

ISBN 978-975-07-0315-4

www.canyayinlari.com

The setting of Geri Gelmemek Üzere (Never to Return) is a lighthouse

built on a desolate island in the Mediterranean. No other lighthouse keeper
had been able to tolerate the post for long, despite the high pay, but the
protagonist settles on this island as if never to return. Eventually unable to
cope with the solitary intensity, he invites a woman he loved passionately
when in Istanbul to share the island with him, though the relationship
does not work out. They find a way to live together on this tiny patch of land
without ever encountering each other, communicating only via e-mail.

Portrayed from three different perspectives, the events of this riveting novel
make sense only at the very end. Narrating the tension that is created by
passion within a compelling atmosphere of isolation, Mehmet Anıl proves
how, in the hands of a good writer, familiar, even clichéd life stories that fill
the third page of newspapers can be transformed into an arresting novel of
this magnitude. With a setting that comes as much alive as the protagonist
and attains an organic unity with the plot, Never to Return is as successful
in technique as structure.
38 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

MEHMET EROĞLU

He was born in İzmir in 1948. After completing

İzmir Maarif College, he graduated in 1971 from
METU’s Faculty of Engineering, Department of
Civil Engineering. Due to his political views after
the military coup of 1971, he was sentenced to 8
years of penal servitude and 2 years of exile. He
began to be involved in literature subsequent
to his release with the general amnesty in 1974.
His first novel, Issızlığın Ortası (The Midst of
Desolation) won him the Milliyet Novel Prize
at the same time as Orhan Pamuk. His second
novel, Geç Kalmış Ölü (Belated Cadaver) was
completed in 1981. Because of the era’s political
atmosphere, these two books were only able to
find their readers after 1984. Eroğlu, who has
also written film scripts and who is currently
lecturing in writing techniques in Ankara,
has written the following books: Yarım Kalan
Yürüyüş (The Walk Interrupted, 1986), Adını
Unutan Adam (The Man Who Forgot His Name,
1989), Yürek Sürgünü (Heart’s Exile, 1994), Yüz:
1981 (Face:1981, 2000), Zamanın Manzarası
(The Landscape of Time, 2002), Kusma Kulübü
(The Vomiting Club, 2004), Düş Kırgınları
(Those Vexed by Illusion, 2005), and Belleğin
Kış Uykusu (Hibernation of the Mind, 2005).
DÜŞ KIRGINLARI
THOSE VEXED BY ILLUSION
Agora Publishing
2005
272 pages
ISBN 975-8829-89-0
www.agorakitapligi.com
Those Vexed by Illusion deals with individuals
who have a painful relationship with the past,
who are depleted of dreams. Embracing a lengthy
historical period with flashbacks in three time
zones, in this story Eroğlu has enlivened his
protagonist with motifs that are particular to
romanticism: the reversion from modernity
to nature, suicide, infidelity. Accompanying
human feelings is a portrayal of the Karaburun
peninsula, under a sometimes foggy and at times
scintillating sky; loves that begin amidst the
beauty of nature and deaths that are induced by
the severity of nature are represented by finely
crafted sentences. Those Vexed by Illusion takes
its generous share from those “several good
sentences uttered for the first time” that we are
so accustomed to seeing in Eroğlu novels.
 39

MEHMET YAŞIN

He was born in 1958, in Lefkosa, Cyprus. Yaşın,

who began literature with poetry, was awarded
the Akademi Press 1985 Best in Poetry Award
and the A. Kadir Award for his first book of
poems. He has published many books that
were translated into over ten languages, set
to music, and staged, as well as essays and
books of anthological and academic research.
Yaşın, who won the Cevdet Kudret Prize for
Literature with his first novel, Soydaşınız Balık
Burcu (Your Kinsman Pisces) in 1995, published
Sınırdışı Saatler (Clocks Beyond Boundaries,
SINIRDIŞI SAATLER 2003) as his second novel. Yaşın, whose poems
CLOCKS BEYOND BOUNDARIES have been published in Turkish, Greek, and
Everest Publishing English in Istanbul, Athens, Nicosia, and London
magazines, is a multilingual, multinational
2007
writer. He is also engaged in the administration
264 pages of Turkish, Greek, and Cyprian literature related
ISBN 978-975-289-397-9 projects that are supported by the European
Union and teaches literature and translation
www.everestyayinlari.com
classes in London’s Middlesex University.
In Clocks Beyond Boundaries, as in his first novel,
Yaşın portrays the adversities faced by nomadic
individuals, namely the minority, rather than
people who live in one specific country, with
ties to the land. He explores the relationship of
those written and re-written stories by means
of an intertwined plot that emphasizes Cypriot
identity, intertwined time zones, intertwined
languages, peoples existing side by side. In this
challenging novel where different layers have
to be read simultaneously, Yaşın utilizes every
possible literary technique, driving his reader to
see and process the other face of what is visible.
Clocks Beyond Boundaries opens doors yet again
onto the depths of the identity problem with its
formative powers of language.
40 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

METİN CELÂL

He was born in 1961 in Ankara. He studied

Petroleum Engineering at METU, and at
the Istanbul University College of Press and
Distribution. He has worked in each echelon of
the publishing sector, from editor to redactor,
proofreader to editor-in-chief; he continues
as head of a publishing house. Partaking in
poetry and literature magazine boards, working
on anthologies and dictionaries, he has also
published various writings and poems in literary
magazines, newspapers, and books since 1979.
Metin Celâl completed his first novel, Ne Güzel
Çocuklardık Biz (What Beautiful Kids We SENİ SEVDİĞİMİ BİLİYORSUN
Were) in 2000 and subsequently wrote Gitmek YOU KNOW I LOVE YOU

Zamanı (Time to Go, 2003) and Seni Sevdiğimi Everest Publishing

Biliyorsun (You Know I Love You, 2005).
2005

170 pages

ISBN 978-975-289-275-2

www.everestyayinlari.com

You Know I Love You depicts a passionate and

melancholy summer love on an island. Portrayed is
the mutation of sexual attraction into forbidden love
between a high school youth, inexperienced as regards
women, and a woman who has lost her peace with herself
due to her marriage, her body, and, in short, life. The
desire and admiration in the youth’s gaze has made
Müjde feel like a woman again, as a relationship that
began game-like turns into a burning addiction. Yet
word gets around, and when their liaison is revealed, an
explosive scandal follows.
Love at the boiling point of middle-class morality is the
social foundation of the novel and an effective satire
directed at middle-class ethics emerges. Metin Celâl
succeeds in bringing erotic pleasures to life, giving a holiday
atmosphere to the internal worlds of his characters.
 41

MIGIRDİÇ MARGOSYAN

He was born in the “Heretic” (Hançapek) district

of Diyarbakır in 1938. Following Middle School
he continued onto the Philosophy Department
of Istanbul University. He was the principal of
Surp Hac Tibrevank High School in Üsküdar
Selamsız between 1966-72, also teaching
philosophy, psychology, the Armenian language
and literature there. Later, he quit teaching,
embarking on the field of trade. He continued
his literary endeavors without a break. His first
short stories were published in the newspaper
Marmara, in Armenian.
TESPİH TANELERİ He has books entitled Gavur Mahallesi (The
ROSARY BEADS Heretic District, 1992), Söyle Margos Nerelisen
Aras Publishing (Tell Us Where You Come From Margos, 1995)
and Biletlerimiz İstanbul’a Kesildi (Our Tickets
2006
are to Istanbul, 1998). His masterpiece The
528 pages Heretic District won the Eliz Kavukcuyan
ISBN 978-975-7265-87-X Literature Award in France in 1998. It was
translated into Kurdish by Ruken Bağdu Keskin
www.arasyayincilik.com
and published in 1999.
Known as the last representative of the theme
of urbanization in the countryside in Armenian
literature, Tespih Taneleri (Rosary Beads) depicts
an Armenian youth who leaves Diyarbakır for
schooling in Istanbul’s Karagözyan Armenian
Orphanage. The writer Mıgırdiç captures the
protagonist Mıgırdiç’s literacy, his learning of
Armenian and other studies, and his mental and
emotional transitions during this procedure. The
plot is put to a violent stop on September 6, 1955.
Margosyan has written Rosary Beads by observing
both history and literature. Destinies change
abruptly one day, families are torn apart, children
are scattered here and there, their culture by then
lost, ordinary villagers try to hold on to life. In
short, Margosyan portrays the effect of historical
events on the individual’s life.
42 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

MURATHAN MUNGAN

He was born in Istanbul on April 21st, 1955, and

spent his childhood and early adolescence in his
native Mardin. He completed his undergraduate
education at Ankara University, in the Faculty
of Letters, Drama Department, earning his
Master’s degree there as well. For a while he
worked as a playwright and editor of an “Arts
and Culture Page” of a newspaper. He has been
living in Istanbul since 1988 as a freelance
writer. Beginning in 1975, Murathan Mungan
has acquired fame by the publications of his
poems, stories, articles, essays, criticism, and
surveys in various periodicals and newspapers.
ÇADOR
Throughout his bright career he has written CHADOR
poems, song lyrics, stories, plays, film scenarios,
Metis Publications
novels, anthologies, and edited works. Found
worthy of several literature prizes, Murathan 3rd Edition, 2004
Mungan’s writings have been published in many 112 pages
languages. His first narrative, derived from
ISBN 975-342-459-0
story-like nature of real-life material was the
book Paranın Cinleri (Money Djinns) in 1997. He www.metisbooks.com
was one of the authors of Beş Peşe (Subsequent Chador is the story of Akhbar’s several-day
Five) each chapter of which was written by a long disappointment upon his return, after a
different writer. He also wrote Yüksek Topuklar long time, to his native city, which he has been
(High Heels, 2002) and Çador (Chador, 2004). yearning for, and finding that all women are
His most recent work is a collection of stories covered. Mungan is far from superfluous in his
titled Kadından Kentler (Cities of Women, discussion of the motives for covering women,
2008). and the reality covered by headscarves. Also vital
are the colours, lives, dreams, and gender politics
covered by the text. Everything that is irrelevant,
dead, or unnecessary has been eliminated;
the violent, the sacred, the absurd, darkness,
malice, and events that may induce abstractions
are broken down through the lens of the novel.
Mungan injects every moment of the narrative
with thoughts and feelings made concrete in the
character of Akhbar.
 43

NAZAN BEKİROĞLU

She was born in 1957 in Trabzon. Having

completed Turkish Language and Literature at
Atatürk University in the Faculty of Arts, she
worked as high school teacher for four years.
Upon completing her doctorate in 1985, she
entered the Department of Turkish Language
and Literature as an instructor at Karadeniz
Technical University in the Faculty of Education.
She became an Associate Professor in 1995 with
a thesis on the poet Nigar Hanım. She continues
to teach as a full professor. Bekiroğlu, who has
written numerous scientific articles, essays, and
short stories for various periodicals, has also
İSİMLE ATEŞ ARASINDA published collections of short stories and books
BETWEEN NAME AND FIRE
of research. Her first novel, İsimle Ateş Arasında
Timaş Publishing (Between Name and Fire) was published in
2002 2002.

304 pages

ISBN 975-362-718-1

www.timas.com.tr

In Between Name and Fire Nazan Bekiroğlu questions

official history on one the hand, and the states of
love in gender relationships on the other, as she tells
a story of the final days and eventual annihilation
of the Janissary Corps. Bekiroğlu has composed a
poetic narrative using “Old” Turkish. “Chronology is
transgressed” in this story, as topics and the narrator’s
identity change often. At times it is a janissary who
speaks, representing various eras in the history of
the corps; at times it is the tale of a devshirme’s
recruitment. Bekiroğlu has drawn history from the
voice of the oppressed. Consequently, we witness the
enslavement of janissaries, the abduction of little
children to the ranks of the Sultan before they have left
the laps of their mothers, learned their mother tongues,
lived their childhood.
44 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

NAZLI ERAY

Eray was born in Ankara. She attended

Arnavutköy American College for Girls,
and subsequently graduated from Istanbul
University, Faculty of Law. She worked as
a translator in the Ministry of Tourism and
Publicity. With motherhood, she ended this
career and focused on literature. Her first book,
Ah Bayım Ah (Oh Mister, Oh) was published
in 1976. Her stories have been translated into
English, French, German, Italian, Japanese,
Czech, Urdu, and Hindi. For a while she was
a columnist in newspapers, wrote plays
for TV and radios, and produced various AYIŞIĞI SOFRASI
programmes. The author who has numerous MOONLIGHT BUFFET

books of stories, plays, and essays, has also Can Sanat Publishing
compiled a long list of novels: Pasifik Günleri
2000
(Pacific Days, 1981), Orphée (Orpheus, 1983),
Deniz Kenarında Pazartesi (Seaside Monday, 190 pages

1984), Arzu Sapağında İnecek Var (Let Me ISBN 975-070-037-6

Off at the Desire Detour, 1991), Ay Falcısı
(Lunar Soothsayer, 1992), Aşık Papağan Barı
(The Lovestruck Parrot Pub, 1993), Yıldızlar
Mektup Yazar (Stars Write Letters, 1993), Uyku
İstasyonu (Sleep Station, 1994), Bir Yaz Gecesi
(A Summer Night, 1994), Düş İşleri Bülteni
(The Dream Works Bulletin, 1994), İmparator
Çay Bahçesi (The Emperor Tea Garden 1997),
Ayışığı Sofrası (Moonlight Buffet, 2000), Aşkı
Giyinen Adam (The Man Dressed in Love,
2001), Sis Kelebekleri (Fog Butterflies, 2003),
Beyoğlu’nda Gezersin (Wander in Beyoğlu,
2005), and Farklı Rüyalar Sokağı (Street of
Disparate Dreams, 2007).
www.canyayinlari.com
Nazlı Eray’s style is surreal. In
Moonlight Buffet she has carried to the
middle of present-day Ankara the cave
where the seven sleepers lived for three-
hundred-and-nine years before they
fell asleep two-thousand years ago.
Intertwining disparate cross-sections
of time, she allows us to compare the
characters’ lives by portraying the
merging of their common grieves,
fears, shocks, and contentment. Eray
does not only dissolve dream and
reality into one another, she also
throws into her novels some of her own
life’s realities.
 45

NİYAZİ ZORLU

Born in Bingöl in 1965, Niyazi Zorlu completed

the Faculty of Agriculture at Ege University.
He began writing while composing radio plays
and sketches for TRT. Zorlu, who was honoured
as a “notable story-writer” in the 1994 Yaşar
Nabi Nayır Youth Awards, published his first
book, Şehir İçi Öyküleri (Inner City Stories)
in 1998. He published his first novel Hergele
Aşıklar (Rascal Lovers) in 2003. Yet even his
first book of short stories had come quite close
to the novel genre with its unifying themes of
poverty, isolation and violence. Portraying the
HERGELE ÂŞIKLAR shantytowns swallowed up by urbanization,
RASCAL LOVERS and the residents therein who are waiting to be
Metis Publications saved, the author attempts to find a language
and style that breaks down the rhetorical
2003
barriers that inhibit the depiction of these
240 pages individuals.
ISBN 978-975-342-424-8

www.metisbooks.com

The setting of Rascal Lovers is a shantytown directly

below the city. Centering the story on the short life of
Zekeriya, Zorlu turns daily language upside down as
he proceeds by temporal leaps to depict perceptions
destroyed within consciousness in the parallel lives of
the “Ditch” residents. Without putting special emphasis
on political matters in the novel, he nevertheless
interjects politics into the story by depicting life in the
Ditch. The actual weight is on Ditch and the blend of
violence therein, its wearisome, intolerable standard
of living, and the withering and barren bickering that
goes on there. Zorlu offers a perception of an ostracized,
not yet urbanized metropolitan world. Focusing on the
feelings and dreams of the people, their language and
their stories, Niyazi Zorlu delves into themes animated
by striking imagery or shocking metaphors that are left
to the reader to decipher.
46 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

ORHAN PAMUK

He was born in 1952 in Istanbul. He graduated

from Robert College. Although he initially chose
to study architecture in his higher education,
he completed his degree in the Department of
Journalism at Istanbul University in 1977. He
entered the world of literature with Karanlık ve
Işık (Darkness and Light), which shared first
place with Mehmet Eroğlu in the 1979 Milliyet
Novel Prize. Published under the name Cevdet
Bey ve Oğulları (Cevdet Bey and His Sons) in
1982, he won the Orhan Kemal Novel Prize with
this book. His second novel, Sessiz Ev (Silent
House, 1983), earned the Madaralı Novel Prize. BENİM ADIM KIRMIZI
Establishing his place in letters with Beyaz MY NAME IS RED
Kale (The White Castle, 1985), Kara Kitap
İletişim Publishing
(The Black Book, 1990), Yeni Hayat (The New
Life, 1994), Benim Adım Kırmızı (My Name is 1998

Red, 1998), and Kar (Snow, 2002), Pamuk was
acclaimed for bringing his childhood memories
to life in Istanbul, Hatıralar ve Şehir (Istanbul:
Memories and the City, 2003). Millions of
readers from all corners of the world were not
surprised when Pamuk eventually won
the Nobel Prize in 2006.
616 pages
ISBN 975-470-711-1
www.wylieagency.com
My Name is Red is a detective story that
engrosses the reader with a plot that unfolds in
the distant past. The protagonist has only three
days to capture the murderer who calls out to
his reader from within the text, a murderer who
confesses, draws parallels between the murders
he has committed and offers his thoughts on
the art of miniature. This time pressure further
increases the tempo of the novel, whose action
in the dark streets, abandoned houses and
ramparts, and antiquated atmosphere of old
Istanbul never stops. Eroticism, homosexuality,
murder, the passion for creation, time, money,
the East and West’s disparity, fill the novel’s
intricately composed pages making it an
enjoyable, elegant novel, with language designed
like a mural painting.
 47

OSMAN NECMİ GÜRMEN

Born in 1927, Osman Necmi Gürmen completed

his education in France. The first novel he wrote
in French was L’écharpe d’iris published in 1976
by Gallimard in Paris. The novel was translated
into Turkish under the title Ebem Kuşağı
(Rainbow) in 1977. His second novel, Kılıç
Uykuda Vurulur (A Sword Struck in Sleep) was
penned in Turkish. This novel was translated
into French in 1979 under the title L’espadon
and published by Gallimard; it was translated
into Norwegian in 1981. Gürmen, who took a
hiatus from writing, returned to literature with
two back-to-back novels: Râna (Râna, 2006)
RÂNA and Mühtedi: Kiliseden Camiye (Muhtedi: From
Church to Mosque, 2007).
Kanat Publishing

2006

464 pages

ISBN 975-8859-35-8

www.kalemagancy.com

Writing in two languages, in Râna, Gürmen has depicted a potent

historicity in the first half of the 1900’s, which nonetheless puts
emphasis on the individual. Portrayed is the sorrowful, short
life-story of a woman in Istanbul who witnesses the last days of
Ottoman rule and the beginnings of the Republic. Râna will grow
up watching the pains of war in a country in the claws of illness,
death and poverty. The reflection of all this in the grave expression
of the contracted individual visages of a torn public will taint her
own life as well. Time marks the novel: human beings are born,
they grow up, die, they develop and change, a family rises or falls
from generation to generation. Through both plot and language,
Gürmen depicts the difference between history and literature, the
historian and the person of letters, proving his masterful ability,
once again, to unify individual fates with political and social life.
He makes no claims to locate the essence of historical events. Yet
a historical feeling pervades the novel.
48 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

PERİHAN MAĞDEN

She was born in Istanbul in 1960. Beginning

with magazine articles in the 90’s, she
continues her writing career as a columnist
in the newspaper Radikal. Her first novel,
Haberci Çocuk Cinayetleri (The Messenger
Boy Murders) was published in 1991. In 1994,
her novel Refakatçi (Companion) and in 1995,
her book of poems Mutfak Kazaları (Kitchen
Mishaps), were published. Perihan Mağden,
who has many books of essays and articles, was
at the top of the Best Sellers list with her İki
Genç Kızın Romanı (Two Girls, 2002) and Biz
Kimden Kaçıyorduk Anne? (Mom, Who Were İKİ GENÇ KIZIN ROMANI
We Escaping From?, 2007). TWO GIRLS

Everest Publishing

2002

265 pages

ISBN 978-975-213-8

www.istanbultelifofisi.com

Two Girls tells a harsh story. A poor family’s college student daughter,
Behiye, hates her meek father, her baffled, timid and clumsy mother
and her nationalistic elder brother with his dreams of striking it rich.
She despises the apartment where she always inhales the same odour,
her neighbours, her peers, and basically everything and everyone
around her. Handan, on the other hand, is a fragile and pretty girl,
neglected by a mother who makes a living out of her relationships with
wealthy men. When the two girls suddenly meet one day, they grow
close enough to the extent that they live one life with two bodies. Yet
Behiye’s love suffocates Handan, and on the twentieth day of their
friendship, this short happiness will end in great pain.
In her story, driven forward by unsolved murders, and fueled by
elements that pique the reader’s curiosity, Perihan Mağden creates a
disquieting atmosphere as she dwells on the social constructions that
cause the troubles in the lives of these adolescent youths.
 49

SEBAHATTİN DEMİRAY

Sebahattin Demiray was born in the Balıkesir’s

Karakavak village on March 15th, 1967. After
completing elementary school in Savaştepe and
high school in İvrindi, he graduated from the
Department of Radio, Television, and Cinema,
in the Faculty of Communications at Istanbul
University. Demiray, whose caricatures, graphic
drawings, illustrations, and humourous writings
have been published, has also been the curator
of caricature exhibitions. His first novel, Masalcı
(Storyteller) was published in 1999. Kayıp
İsimler Sözlüğü (Dictionary of Lost Names) was
KAYIP İSİMLER SÖZLÜĞÜ published in 2002, Ecel Sarayında Gece (A Night
DICTIONARY OF LOST NAMES at Death Palace) in 2004.
Epsilon Publishing

2002

263 pages

ISBN 975-331-377-2

www.epsilonyainevi.com

Dictionary of Lost Names is a novel that encompasses the entirety

of the 20th century and in which three intertwined stories are
connected to each other by a female character. We encounter
three stories, three separate stretches of time, three different
men and one woman. Sebahattin Demiray has captured life’s
peculiar flow by means of male characters whose sole common
ground is Ünzile, though none know her thoroughly, and none
spend an honest effort to get to know her. Next to the men’s
battle to remain standing, Ünzile is merely an unfortunate
detail. Dictionary of Lost Names is a well-told story. The author
is able to maintain his reader’s curiosity while persevering three
intertwined time zones, each one devoid of any linearity and
related through flashbacks. Each character’s particular traits
become apparent with the alteration of the narration. Storyteller
Abidin Efendi’s language is especially fitting both to the era and
to his identity as a storyteller. Dictionary of Lost Names grips the
reader throughout.
50 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

SELÇUK ALTUN

Selçuk Altun was born in 1950, in Şavşat-Artvin.

Upon earning his degree at Boğaziçi University
in the Department of Management, he
completed a Master‘s in the same department
and began working in the field of finance. He
is still a member of Yapı Kredi Bank‘s Board of
Administration and also the president of YKY
Board of Administration. Altun, who has written
essays on books and bookselling for periodicals
and newspapers, and whose translations have
appeared in various compilations, is the author
of Yalnızlık Gittiğin Yoldan Gelir (Desolation
Comes From The Road You Took, 2001), Bir Sen ANNEMİN ÖĞRETMEDİĞİ
ŞARKILAR
Yakınsın Uzakta Kalınca (When Far, Only You
THE SONGS MY MOTHER
Are Near, 2002), Ku®şun Lezzeti (The Savor DIDN’T TEACH
of B(ullet)ird’s, 2003), Annemin Öğretmediği
Sel Publishing
Şarkılar (The Songs My Mother Didn’t Teach,
2005) and Senelerce Senelerce Evveldi (It was 2005

Years, Years Ago, 2008). 176 pages

ISBN 975-570-228-5

www.selyayincilik.com

Those who have read Selçuk Altun’s previous novels will not
be unfamiliar with the characterizations, intense portrayals
of setting, progressive pace particular to detective novels,
and the writer’s unique style in the probing tale of The
Songs My Mother Didn’t Teach. Exploiting the enigmatic
thrill common to the detective genre, The Songs My Mother
Didn’t Teach presents the reader with an estranged member
of a family, a family to which life has been generous, even
perhaps cruelly so – in the material sense. Not inclined to
protract his story, Altun uses language as economically as
possible, yet does not forsake the visual in writing. Whether
old or new, rich or poor, known or overlooked, a strong
atmosphere is created through the portrayal of Istanbul’s
byways, streets, buildings, houses, and historical locations
in a novel intense in imagery, metaphor, and simile.

SELİM İLERİ
YARIN YAPAYALNIZ
TOMORROW ALL ALONE
Doğan Kitap Publishing
2004
452 pages
ISBN 978-975-293-189004
www.kalemagency.com
Tomorrow All Alone depicts the story of two women
between whom exist a great difference of age, as
well as a difference of class and social standing.
It is the story of a passionate and sorrowful love
between a famous soprano and a young girl who
works as a tailor. Selim İleri, who knows and loves the
atmosphere of old romances, animates this depiction
of love as somberly yet as fervently as that of the old
novels, yet with a more aesthetic language and subtle
narrative techniques. His pastoral portrayal of love’s
alienated states is so poetic that we sense there can be
no gender discrimination when it comes to love.
51
Selim İleri was born in Istanbul in 1949. He
completed Ataturk High School in 1968. For
a time he attended the Faculty of Law at
Istanbul University. Giving up his studies, he
devoted himself to writing. His first piece was
published in Yeni Ufuklar magazine in 1967. He
gained fame with publications in the period’s
foremost magazines. His first book of stories
was published in 1968, his acclaimed first
novel, Her Gece Bodrum (Halicarnassus Every
Night) in 1973. Selim İleri, who has written,
alongside novels and stories, scenarios, essays,
literature-related surveys, and a book of poetry,
has also won numerous literary awards and
published the following (out of his overall 21
novels) after 1990: Mavi Kanatlarınla Yalnız
Benim Olsaydın (If You Were Only Mine With
Your Blue Wings, 1991), Kırık Deniz Kabukları
(Broken Seashells, 1994), Gramafon Hâlâ
Çalıyor (The Gramophone is Still Playing, 1994),
Cemil Şevket Bey, Aynalı Dolaba İki El Revolver
(Cemil Şevket Bey, Firing the Revolver Twice
at the Mirrored Cabinet, 1997), Solmaz Hanım
ve Kimsesiz Okurlar İçin (For Ms. Solmaz and
Forlorn Readers, 2000), Bu Yaz Ayrılığın İlk Yazı
Olacak (This Summer will Be the First One of
Separation, 2001), Yarın Yapayalnız (Tomorrow
All Alone, 2004), Kapalı İktisat (Closed
Economics, 2007), Hepsi Alev (It’s All Flame,
2007), and Daha Dün: Geçmiş, Bir Daha Geri
Gelmeyecek Zamanlar (Only Yesterday: The
Past Times That Will Never Come Back, 2008).
52 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

SEZGİN KAYMAZ

Sezgin Kaymaz was born in 1962. Educated

in English Literature he subsequently entered
the faculty of law. Additionally, he has
assumed the position as handball coach. He
entered the world of literature with his novel
Uzunharmanlar’da Bir Davetsiz Misafir (An
Uninvited Guest in Uzunharmanlar) in 1997.
When his first book was published, it was
obvious that Sezgin Kaymaz was an author who
had a story to tell, who knew and loved the act of
writing. His other books are Geber Anne (Drop
Dead, Mother, 1998), Kaptanın Teknesinde (In
The Captain’s Boat, 1999), Lucky (Lucky, 2000), ZİNDANKALE
and Zindankale (Castle Dungeon, 2004). CASTLE DUNGEON

İletişim Publishing

2004

572 pages

ISBN 975-050-287-6

www.istanbultelifofisi.com

In Castle Dungeon, a “familiar” story that takes place in the world

of ordinary people is adorned with fantastic motifs and recounted in
a charming and fluent language. Sezgin Kaymaz’s tempo does not
slow down from beginning to end. The story develops around the love
of two youths who have the same dream and who, unbeknownst to
one another, animate a thirty-year-long curse. To end this curse that
will lead to the death of all the novel’s characters if it comes true, it is
necessary to go back thirty years, face secrets and annihilate the evil at
its very beginnings.
The setting and people of Castle Dungeon are as familiar and ordinary
as its story. Yet what creates the beauty of this novel is its ordinariness
and familiarity, better yet the style of the expression of this familiarity
and ordinariness. In this novel that almost evokes a sense of parodist
tragedy, Sezgin unites many personality types through coincidence. An
easy-going narration, dialogue and general use of language, enlivens
the people, places, and events; the streets of Ankara come alive.
 53

SÜHEYLA ACAR

Born in 1960 in Istanbul, she received an

education in Economics at METU between 1978-
83. She began writing when a Master’s student
at Boğaziçi University. Following the awards
she won in 1988 and 1989 with her scenarios
and stories, her Dostluk Hüznü Paylaşmaktır
(Friendship is Sharing the Sorrow), a collection
of stories, was published. Süheyla Acar, who has
also written the scenarios of various cinema
and television films, has awards in this field
as well. She has published one story in Italy’s
Panta Politica magazine, and has worked as
an assistant director on movies for which she
YAĞMURUN YEDİ YÜZÜ
SEVEN FACES OF YAĞMUR wrote the script. She attended cinema classes in
New York in 1994. She has published two novels:
Can Sanat Publishing
Yağmurun Yedi Yüzü (Seven Faces of Yağmur,
2004 2004) and Şapkasız Yalanlar (Hatless Lies,
419 pages 2008).

ISBN 975-070-421-5

www.canyayinlari.com

Shock is often necessary to bring back to life the destruction, sorrow and
forsaken complications of history. Seven Faces of Yağmur begins with such
a shock: the news of death. Following their much loved friend Yağmur,
the novel’s characters, too, remember a forgotten history, or a history
they have attempted to forget: they face their own past and themselves.
What is brought to life is not only Yağmur; this seven-chaptered tale is
told from seven different first-person narratives, evocations that complete
the political, economic, and societal portrait of Turkey prior to March
12th military coup in 1971 and on to our present day. The tragedy of small
bourgeois intellectuals and their relatives who never had a chance to
survive in the value system of post-September 12th military coup in 1980 is
negotiated in the novel by way of the confounded relations of individual
fates, social movement, generation gaps, and historical and social realities.
54 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

ŞEBNEM ŞENYENER

She was born in Izmir in 1956. During her

studies at Boğaziçi University in 1979, she
embarked on democratic journalism. As an
international reporter, her first writings were
sent from Paris to Yeni Gündem magazine for
publication in 1984. After a Master’s Degree at
Columbia University in 1986, she first wrote for
Cumhuriyet, then for Aktüel, Sabah, Milliyet
Sanat, and Varlık. She was active in the 1998
freedom of thought and expression campaign,
which freed eighty journalists. Meanwhile she
kept on working as an international reporter.
Her first novel Bir Türk Casusunun Mektupları DANSÖZÜN ÖLÜMÜ
DEATH OF A BELLY-DANCER
(Letters of a Turkish Spy) was published in
2001, her second novel 30 Şubat (February Can Publishing
30th) was published in 2004, and her final one 2006
Dansözün Ölümü (Death of a Belly-dancer)
152 pages
came out in 2006. Şenyener has been living in
New York since 1982. ISBN 978-975-07-0595-5

www.canyayinlari.com

Death of a Belly-dancer commences as an attractive dancer

is found dead at the opening ceremony for the exhibition
of the “World’s Bedrock” portrait at the Brooklyn Museum
– despite objections to it by conservative sects. Each suspect
will tell a different tale to the detective in charge of the
investigation. Or rather, they will whisper the feelings this
mysterious, beautiful woman has provoked in them, secrets
particular to them. When the detective records the events
of this murder, the case is darkened by statements that
contradict one another, and what remain are passions that
create tempests in human lives. What Şenyener illumines
are those passions, as well, through her effective, emphatic,
imagistic and evocative language as she boldly wanders
within the dark milieu of a human psychology incited by
sexual desire. Via the female body, Şenyener challenges love,
desire, and lust, as well as jealousy and shame.
 55

TAHİR ABACI

He was born in 1951 in Istanbul. After

attending Malatya Turan Emeksiz Middle
School and Elazığ High School, he completed
Malatya Private Fırat College. He began
higher education in Ankara University, in the
Faculty of Law, earning degrees at Istanbul
University Institution of Journalism and the
Faculty of Law. With a thesis entitled Türk
Şiirinde Siyasallaşma (Politicization in
Turkish Poetry) he finished a Master’s in the
Faculty of Economics, Department of Political
Science. He worked as an independent lawyer
ADI SENFONİ KALSIN in Istanbul. Abacı, who has published poems,
LET THE NAME REMAIN stories, criticisms, and surveys in numerous
SYMPHONY
magazines, has written the novels Ağır Akan Su
Kandil Publishing (Slow-Flowing Stream, 1990), Aynada Bir Yüz (A
2004 Face in the Mirror, 1995), İkinci Adım (Second
Step, 1995), Adı Senfoni Kalsın (Let The Name
160 pages
Remain Symphony, 1999) in addition to his
ISBN 975-654-239-X books of poetry, essays, and research.
tahira@mynet.com

Let The Name Remain Symphony depicts a story

in a time that is not all that distant to ours, 2023.
Resembling sci-fi literature and utopias with its
futuristic orientation and the range of computer-
based technological progress that it covers, it
adds a legalistic touch to these genres as it takes
a critical look at our present-day social lives. At
first glance it is a cheerful, humourous novel, yet
in this rather pessimistic approach to the future it
becomes evident that behind all the revelry there
is never a lack of mistrust of human relations
and set order. Abacı turns even the most serious,
exciting, or dramatic moments to situational
comedies as he exposes the absurdities behind
events, duplicitous human relations, and self-
interest.
56 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

TAHSİN YÜCEL

Tahsin Yücel, who was born in Elbistan in 1933,

is not only known for his stories and novels, but
for his translations, essays, criticism. The writer,
whose two stories were published in Varlık
magazine’s annual “New Stories” book (1950)
when he was still a student at Galatasaray High
School, also completed his higher education
in the field of literature. Tahsin Yücel, who
became Professor of French Language and
Literature at Istanbul University, won numerous
literary awards for his short stories and novels.
Beginning with Mutfak Çıkmazı (Kitchen
Impasse) in 1960, he continued on with KUMRU İLE KUMRU
KUMRU AND KUMRU
Vatandaş (Compatriot, 1975), Peygamberin Son
Beş Günü (The Prophet’s Last Five Days, 1992), Can Sanat Publishing
Bıyık Söylencesi (The Mustache Myth, 1995), 2005
Yalan (Lie, 2002), Kumru ile Kumru (Kumru
291 pages
and Kumru, 2005), and Gökdelen (Skyscraper,
2006). ISBN 978-975-07-0470-3

www.kalemagency.com

Kumru and Kumru is the story of a migration

from village to town. Portraying the desire of the
housecleaning wife of an apartment superintendent
to possess the goods she sees there, Yücel gives us a
critique of consumer society, and the human relations
that cause such a society are at the target of this
work. Appropriate to a literary text, he renders these
problems visible through the course of the lives of
Kumru, Pehlivan, and other fictional characters.
Making apparent what we can not see in life upon first
glance due to our habits, Yücel revives our trust in
the power of literature once again. Depicting with an
ironic tone the comic and tragicomic social habits that
endure in present-day Turkey via individual types who
experience them more virulently, Yücel has contributed
a domestic Madame Bovary to our literature.
 57

TAYFUN PİRSELİMOĞLU

Upon completing his higher education at

METU, Pirselimoğlu, who studied illustration
and gravure at Vienna’s Applied Fine Arts
Academy, opened exhibitions around the world,
and partook in group-exhibits as well. After
contributing to the field of cinema with both
short and long film scenarios, Pirselimoğlu
produced short films as well as his first full-
length movie Hiçbiryerde (Nowhere) in 2002.
He also published four novels: Çöl Masalları
(Desert Tales, 1996), Kayıp Şahıslar Albümü
(Album of Missing People, 2002), Malihülya
(Fear, 2003), and Şehrin Kuleleri (The Towers of
ŞEHRİN KULELERİ the City, 2005).
THE TOWERS OF THE CITY

İthaki Publishing

2005

424 pages

ISBN 975-273-087-6

www.ithaki.com.tr

The Towers of the City takes place in a future time when an oppressive
regime dominates Istanbul. This atmosphere evokes the 1980’s in
Turkey. The protagonist T. Kara is an attentive, meticulous young
state officer whose task is to watch the city from the tower at Beyazıt.
T. Kara’s life changes when he is assigned the job of following a movie
director by “The Committee of Surveillance’s Branch of Personal
Investigation.” Enriched by many side stories, Tayfun Pirselimoğlu has
composed his novel by revealing through metaphor and symbolism
the chaos and irrational atmosphere of recent history. What is told is a
story of cumbersome bureaucracy, depressive television programmes,
official history manufacturing, coups, insufficient and greedy coup
officers, complicity theories produced by paranoia, provocations, and
a callous public. It seems the novel has no explicitly political stance,
political assays, or sharp criticism, yet by a small maneuver, it does a
lot more than that, inducing its reader to smirk at life’s illogicality and
absurdity.
58 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

VECDİ ÇIRACIOĞLU

He was born in Bursa on December 9th, 1953.

After completing Bursa High School for Boys, he
graduated from Istanbul Technical University,
the Faculty of Metallurgy. He worked as an
engineer and a manager in iron and steel
foundries in the country’s various towns.
Çıracıoğlu played soccer for many years as a
licensed player, and settled in Rumelihisarı on
the shores of the Bosphorous, making a living
as a fisherman for some time. Çıracıoğlu, who
contributed short stories to various literature
magazines and whose interviews were
published in newspapers, won Can Publishing KARA BÜYÜLÜ UYKU
NECROMENTICAL SLEEP
House’s Debut Novel Award for his Kara Büyülü
Uyku (Necromentical Sleep) in 1999. In 2002 Can Sanat Publishing
he placed first in the Artisans Story Contest, 1999
organized by Writers Union of Turkey. Alongside
159 pages
his books of short stories and other narratives,
he has published three other novels: Cimri ISBN 975-844-011-X
Kirpi (The Penny-Pinching Porcupine, 2001),
www.canyayinlari.com
Serseri Standartları Sempozyumu (Vagabond
Standards Symposium, 2004), Sarıkasnak: Necromentical Sleep deals with the period right
Denize Dair Hikayat (Yellow Rim: Stories of the before the occupation of Constantinople by Fatih
Sea, 2006). Sultan Mehmet. The novel encompasses the
short time spent in Rumelihisarı by Hungarian
moulding master Verbain and his assistant
Yannis who take shelter with the Ottoman
Sultan upon being brought from Europe by
great material promises. Told by two separate
narrators, the tale leads to an unexpected
and magical labyrinth of schemes endemic to
Ottoman rule, as well as to mysterious games,
infidelities, and, of course, love. Juxtaposing the
structure of Byzantine and Ottoman governments
with the social life of the period, Çıracıoğlu
displays the differences and details in his story
within an effective historical atmosphere.
 59

VİVET KANETTİ

She was born in Istanbul, and worked in the

fields of sales, telephone operating, drama,
teaching, ergotherapy in a mental hospital,
reporting, broadcasting, and as a film extra
and newspaper columnist. Kanetti, who
has published in various magazines, filmed
documentaries and written scripts, has also
translated many world classics into Turkish. To
prevent her books from being placed in foreign
authors section of bookstores, she has published
them at first under the pseudonym E. Emine.
Her novels are Bizans Sohbetleri (Byzantine
Chats, 1988), Kırık Zarlar (Broken Dice, 1997),
KURABİYE SAATİNDE
Kurabiye Saatinde (At the Cookie Hour, 1997),
AT THE COOKIE HOUR
and Turuncu Kayık (Orange Rowboat, 2000).
Kanat Publishing
Prenslerin Adası (Princes’ Island) was written in
2nd Edition, 2007 the form of a script.
140 pages

ISBN 978-975-8859-63

www.kanatkitap.com

At the Cookie Hour concerns itself with the events lived by the
daughter of a woman from Masaya and a Turkish man who leaves
Nicaragua to settle in Istanbul. It focuses on issues of identity
and belonging in the interesting lives of its many characters. By
destroying jargon with jargon, babble with babble, Vivet Kanetti
works in reverse to compose a personal narrative, or internal
voice, that the protagonist Nebiye cannot establish due to her
inability to escape fake sociality and jargon. If mixed blood is
what prevents Nebiye from being “whole and real,” what allows
her to criticize the final days of the Istanbul Bohemia is also her
hybridity. At the Cookie Hour is not a roman à clef but a parody
of a roman à clef. Does it seem too much for fake people, puppets
to want to resemble real models in an environment where “real”
individuals easily become artificial? Real individuals and puppets,
have we not all become futile victims of the same cultural
clamour?
60 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

YAŞAR KEMAL

One of the most prominent authors in the

Republic’s history, Yaşar Kemal was born in
1923 in Hemite village of Adana’s Osmaniye
district. His real name is Kemal Sadık Göğceli.
His interest in literature began with folklore
and poetry during middle school. He dropped
out of middle school in its last year; he
worked as a labourer, foreman guard of rice
fields, petition-writer, teacher, librarian, but
never took a break from writing. He started
journalism upon coming to Istanbul in 1951.
He also moved from poetry to story-writing
in those years. His first book of stories was
published in 1952, his first novel, İnce Memed
(Memed, My Hawk) in 1955. His fame rapidly
spread when he won the 1955 Varlık Novel
Prize with this novel. Novels would follow
novels, awards would follow awards, and the
name Yaşar Kemal would now be reverently
celebrated all around the world. He has
many stories, plays, scripts, folk tales, and
essays, published in 29 languages, and many
international awards won for these works.
This master author who has created twenty-
seven novels, is still working on the final
volume of his Bir Ada Hikâyesi (An Island
Tale) tetralogy.
FIRAT SUYU KAN AĞLIYOR
BAKSANA
LOOK, THE EUPHRATES IS
BLEEDING
Yapı Kredi Publishing
2007
318 pages
ISBN 975-080-706-0
www.ykykultur.com.tr
In Fırat Suyu Kan Ağlıyor Baksana (Look, The Euphra-
tes is Bleeding, 1998), Karıncanın Su İçtiği (Where
the Ant Drinks Water, 2002), and Tanyeri Horozları
(Roosters of Daybreak, 2002), which are the first three
novels of the tetralogy, Yaşar Kemal portrays an epic
that rejects official recorded history. An extraordinary
use of language unites the development of individuals
with a simultaneity of time, setting, and event. The po-
litical and social sources of good and evil, tyranny and
suffering, and the roots of that hatred felt for the other
writhe out from beneath the curtain of fog that covers
them. The many, very human traits of each character
we meet brings them to life. This great author voices his
thoughts with exceptional beauty and effective images
that cling to our minds and haunt our spirits.
 61

YİĞİT OKUR

Yiğit Okur completed his middle and high

school education at Galatasaray High School.
His poems were published in Varlık, Yenilik
and Mavi magazines in the 50’s; in the same
period, he translated novels and plays from
the French; his theater criticism appeared in
Sabah and Vatan newspapers. Okur, who is
one of the founders of the Cep Theatre, also
worked as a performer for some time. Going
to Geneva in 1958 to continue his education
in Law, Okur won the University of Geneva
Law Award for his doctorate thesis. Returning
to Istanbul in 1965, he began practicing law.
PİYANO During this time he earned his living with
PIANO
interviews and occupational articles in various
Can Sanat Publishing newspapers and magazines. After an almost
2003 forty-year-long silence, Okur reunited with the
literary world upon the publication of his Hulki
431 pages
Bey ve Arkadaşları (Mr. Hulki and Friends) in
ISBN 978-975-07-0299-0 2000, also winning the Haldun Taner Short
www.canyayinlari.com Story Award with his O Zaman Kim Söyleyecek
Şarkıları (Who is Going to Sing the Songs Then)
The novel, Piano, tells the forty-year-
in 2003. His other novels are the following:
long life story of a protagonist who is
Güvercinler (Pigeons, 2001), Topal Viktor’un
the sole successor of a wealthy family
Anıları (Memoirs of a Crippled Viktor, 2002),
with an ancestry that can be traced
Piyano (Piano, 2003), Deniz Taşları (Sea Stones,
back to Italy. Told during the years
2005), and Büyücü (Wizard, 2007).
of WWII, the story begins when he
completes school and takes over his
father’s business. Time ebbs and flows
in this novel alive with scenes that
depict political and social developments
of the time. Okur’s novel is rich in
fluent, engaging and ironic language.
There are many side stories. Capturing
the evasive happiness and the
melancholic atmosphere of days long-
gone, Piano is an novel of depth.
62 CONTEMPORARY NOVELS FROM TURKEY

ZAFER ŞENOCAK

He was born in 1961 in Ankara, migrating to

Germany with his family in 1970. He studied
Literature, Political Science, and Philosophy
at the University of Munich. Şenocak, whose
interest in literature was born in these years,
published six books of poetry and two books
of essays in the German language. Yunus
Emre’den Seçilmiş Şiirler (The Selected Poems
of Yunus Emre) which is one of his translations
from Turkish to German, was published as a
book. The books of poems, stories, novels, and
essays he has been writing since 1983 have been
translated into Turkish, English, French, and ALMAN TERBİYESİ
GERMAN MANNERS
Italian. His book of essays, Atlas of a Tropical
Germany, which was published in the USA, has Alef Publishing
reached many readers. Since 1992, he has been 2007
lecturing as a guest professor and engaging in
168 pages
conferences in foremost American universities.
Şenocak, who has won many literary awards ISBN 978-944-49-405-2
and scholarships for his writing, is currently
www.alefyayinevi.com
the editor of the multi-lingual magazine
Sirene. Şenocak is the author of four novels Portraying the life of a colonel who was
some of which are written in German: Tehlikeli once a soldier in the Prussian army,
Akrabalık (Dangerous Kinship, 2006), Yolculuk German Manners is a novel that takes
Nereye (Where Does the Journey Lead?, 2007), place in Istanbul’s WWII years, though it
Alman Terbiyesi (German Manners, 2007), and is influenced by Berlin as well. When his
Köşk (Mansion, 2008). German wife Hilde who is against the Hitler
regime insists that he move to Istanbul to
engage in trade, the protagonist searches
for his own identity by writing his memories.
He is left alone when Hilde dies. With a
commingled language and culture, an
identity that is both Ottoman and German,
both traditional and modern, Şenocak
captures the atmosphere of the first half of
the 20th century via his protagonist.
CONTEMPORARY NOVELS
FROM TURKEY

This catalogue has been

published with the support of
The Republic of Turkey Prime
Ministry Promotion Fund
and Frankfurt Book Fair
2008 Guest of Honour Turkey
Organizing Committee.
© The Republic of Turkey
Ministry of Culture
and Tourism General
Directorate of Libraries and
Publications.

EDITOR
Ömer Türkeş
PUBLISHING CONSULTING
Nancy Öztürk
PRODUCTION
BEK Design and
Consultancy Ltd.
DESIGN CONCEPT
Bülent Erkmen, BEK
PRE-PRESS
Oğuz Yaşargil, BEK
COORDINATION
Ayşe Argun Akbaş
TRANSLATION
Textshop - Intercultural
Communication Services
PRINTING
Ofset Yapımevi

2008, Istanbul

www.fbf2008turkey.com