YAŞASIN KİTAP! (LONG LIVE BOOKS!)
Author: Mine Soysal
Editor: Müren Beykan
Young lives that cross paths with books…
Mine Soysal, whose masterpiece Eyvah Kitap! (Oh No, a Book!) won over educators and
parents as much as young readers, now invites everyone to say
“Yaşasın Kitap!” (Long Live Books!). Thirty-two new short stories vividly
dramatise the psychological and social conditions that shape how today’s
young people read. Years after the first book left a unique mark on
our reading culture, it offers a different journey that will refresh
everyone’s view of “books” and “reading”, prompting readers to think
afresh, through an innovative approach, about the place and importance
of books in young lives.
Young people accused of screen addiction, those doing their homework with AI,
those setting off alone on long journeys, guests at a reading club,
those trying to ease the pain of loved ones lost in the earthquake, those
who lose their neighbourhood bookshop, those in therapy for anger management,
those counting the days to the book fair, lonely migrant workers,
those standing up for bullied friends, those who find their career path
through books, and unexpected suggestions between the lines…
Mine Soysal was born in Istanbul. After completing her studies in Near Eastern
archaeology at Istanbul University’s Faculty of Letters in 1981, she worked for many
years at the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, taking part in excavations and surveys
and working on exhibition projects. In 1996 she founded Günışığı Kitaplığı. She has
taken on many responsibilities in the development of contemporary Turkish children’s
and young adult literature, as well as publishing and reading culture. Writing
novels, short stories and narratives, Soysal gave voice to young people’s reading
problems and rights in her masterpiece Eyvah Kitap! (2006), which has reached
hundreds of thousands of readers. For young readers she has written the novels
Eylül’de Aşklar (Loves in September, 2001), Uzakta (Far Away, 2014) and Daralan
(The Narrowing, 2017), and the short story collections Ala Çocuk Yollarda (The
Speckled Child on the Road, 2005) and Odada Yalnız (Alone in the Room, 2009). Her
narrative İstanbul Masalı (An Istanbul Tale, 2003) was the subject of a documentary
in İz TV’s “Faces of Istanbul” series in 2015. Awarded the 2025 Oğuz Tansel
Children’s Literature Prize, Soysal returned, years after Eyvah Kitap!, to
re-examine young people’s relationship with books in today’s changing world in
Yaşasın Kitap! (2025). The author also gives literature and publishing seminars
across the country; she lives in Istanbul and continues as editor-in-chief of
Günışığı Kitaplığı.
