Turkish novelist Adalet Agaoglu dies at 91

By Handan Kazanci

ISTANBUL (AA) – Prominent Turkish author Adalet Agaoglu died on Tuesday at the age of 91.

She is described as the most prolific authors of 20th century Turkish literature.

“We lost Adalet Agaoglu this morning,” wrote Turkish literary critic Semih Gumus on Twitter.

“She was one of the most important writers of our literature. Her novels were very special,” Gumus said sharing a photo of the Turkish novelist along with her husband who died in 2018.

Turkey’s prestigious Bogazici University said: “We have lost the great name of our literature, the valuable writer Adalet Agaoglu, who has an honorary Ph.D. from Bogazici University. She will always live with her works.”

The award-winning writer was born in 1929 in the Turkish capital Ankara. She studied French Language and Literature at Ankara University.

"Her first novel, Lying down to Die, was published in 1973 and soon became a hit, later becoming a trilogy with the publication of A Wedding Night (1979) and No (1989),” according to Bogazici University.

“Agaoglu’s second novel, Thin Rose of My Thoughts (1976), was pulled off the shelves at the fourth edition after charges were filed against her for ‘humiliating and deriding armed forces’. She was eventually acquitted after a two-year trial,” the university said.

In 2010, Agagolu donated her personal archive to the university which has been kept in a room designed under her supervision. This room also contains her personal objects such as her study-desk and typewriter, her correspondence and the first editions of her books.

Also, a human rights defender, Agaoglu’s writings focused on social issues and their impacts on individuals through sarcasm and monologues.