Turkish literature in Bosnian bookstores

SARAJEVO - Anatolia News Agency

Bosnian book lovers closely follow Turkish novels and history books that have been translated into their language. Besides the books of writers such as Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Orhan Kemal, Ayşe Kulin, Orhan Pamuk and Elif Şafak, works by well-known historians like Halil İnalcık and İlber Ortaylı are popular among Bosnian readers. Director of leading Bosnian publishing house Buybook, Damir Uzunovic said that besides the Nobel laureate writer Orhan Pamuk, works by Ayşe Kulin, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar and Aslı Erdoğan that they published in Bosnian languages drew big interest in the country.

Pamuk’s novels “Snow” and “My Name is Red” were among the best-selling books in Bosnia, he said, adding that this encouraged Bosnian publishers to translate more Turkish books. He also said that the TEDA project, which supports the promotion of Turkish books abroad, had made big contributions to their popularity.

The director of Şahinpaşiç Publishing House, Aydin Şahinpaşiç, said that they had so far published six works from Turkish literature and three books by Ayşe Kulin, Zülfü Livaneli and Sabahattin Ali were ready to be put up on the market. In the meantime, books by Demet Altınyeleklioğlu, İskender Pala, Selim İleri and Mustafa Armağan, which have been translated into Bosnian, were among the works put up for sale at the International Sarajevo Book Fair.