Prominent Turkish novelist Adalet Ağaoğlu dies at 91

ISTANBUL

Prominent Turkish author Adalet Ağaoğlu died on July 13 at the age of 91. She has been described as one of the most prolific authors of 20th-century Turkish literature.      

“We lost Adalet Ağaoğlu this morning,” wrote Turkish literary critic Semih Gümüş on Twitter. “She was one of the most important writers of our literature. Her novels were very special,” Gümüş said, sharing a photo of the Turkish novelist along with her husband who died in 2018.  

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

“Ağaoğlu’s second novel, ‘Thin Rose of My Thoughts’ (1976), was pulled off the shelves on its 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, Ağağolu 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 correspondences and the first editions of her books.      

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