Artist's comic book revives 1980s Turkey

'Dare to Disappoint: Growing Up in Turkey,' a graphic novel in English about a Turkish woman's childhood, has gone to number one in online bookseller Amazon's young-adult category. Özge Samanc?'s book is geared toward people who are unaware of Turkey's historyA homemade birthday present is an unlikely starting point for a groundbreaking graphic novel about a Turkish woman's childhood. But a notebook full of stories given to a friend by Turkish artist Özge Samanc? 15 years ago is the inspiration behind what has become a gripping and innovative account of life in 1980s and 1990s Turkey.

"Dare to Disappoint: Growing Up in Turkey," a 200-page illustrated memoir in English, is the first book by Samanc? - an ?zmir native born in 1975 who has been living in the United States since 2003.

Samanc? said her target audience was people "who do not know about the issues in Turkey."

"The readers who are not familiar with the culture and history of Turkey will be introduced to the trickiness of life in Turkey, the difficulty of survival, the absurdity of politics, the challenge of being a woman in a developing country, the meaning of friendship, love of the sea, the impact of politics in the 1980s and 1990s on the middle class," she said.

"They will also learn about our dysfunctional education system, which traps people into careers for which they have no passion," she added.

The book, which was released on Nov. 17, introduces readers to a time when Turkey experienced one of its most violent military coups, claiming hundreds of lives. It also covers a period of market liberalization and profound social, cultural and economic change.

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