Yılmaz Karakoyunlu was born in Istanbul in 1936. After graduating from Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences, he started to work as a deputy inspector at a bank, then entered the state planning organisation. He obtained a master’s degree in the USA and completed his doctorate at Istanbul University. He has worked for Sabancı Holding, Kanal D television and Tekstilbank. Later, he became a member of the Turkish Parliament for the Anavatan Party. Karakoyunlu, a member of the Theater Writers Guild, wrote columns for newspapers.

His first novel Mrs. Salkım’s Diamonds was about the drama of the minorities which had been forced into hardship during World War II with the handover of the commercial capital in Istanbul and the ethical and cultural corruption that followed and the implementation of the wealth tax. The Council of Three Alis is a novelization of the assassination attempt on Ataturk, the showdown between the founding cadres of the Turkish Republic and the Unionists. Pains of Autumn is a novel on the events of September 6-7 of the year 1955 in Istanbul.

Foreign Editions of Yılmaz Karakoyunlu’s Works: