Özkan: Success of ‘Missing Rose’ attributable to story itself, not me

“The Missing Rose” takes readers on a journey extending from Greek mythology to the great Turkish poet Yunus Emre, from William Blake to Socrates, from the Virgin Mary to Nasreddin Hodja, from modern life to metaphysics -- and from the real world to the magical world of dreams and roses. Özkan's work emphasizes our common points instead of our differences, and while the author accepts the differences of people coming from different cultures, he defends that our similarities as human beings are much more important.

The book was recently republished by Timaş Publishing in a higher quality edition. Transmitted by word of mouth over the years, like a legend, the novel became a bestseller the first week following its republishing. Using the new print as an excuse, Sunday's Zaman decided to embark upon a journey with the young author. Just as how the novel's protagonist, Diana, travels from America to İstanbul in search of the missing rose, our interview with Özkan began in İstanbul and ended in Frankfurt.

What emotions were involved while you wrote “The Missing Rose”? Which emotions served as your main guidance for this book?

I have been trying to understand the meaning of life, people, my environment, myself and others since I was young. From time to time I tried to understand by asking certain questions, but most of us stop asking questions, thinking that there are no answers. I continued to ask these questions, and in the end a story that I believed was meaningful appeared. I believe this story was significant. As with most people, I was pained by beautiful things that I could not share. As a result, I wanted to share the meaningful story composed of these feelings. On the other hand, “The Little Prince” has been a favorite of mine since I was a little kid. I reread it after many years and saw that the book had been completely changed. This book has always made me think; I can say that I was inspired by this book as well.

When your book was released for the first time, it became a favorite and was immediately sold out. So why did it take so long for the second edition to come out?

When it first came out it in Turkey, the readers who read the book connected to the story with love. However, the first run was in a very limited quantity. Frankly, I could say that other countries and cultures discovered “The Missing Rose” before Turkish readers. But I find this normal because more than 1,500 books are released in Turkey each year, and it takes time for some things to be discovered. I think this is natural. After world readers discovered the book, Turkish readers quickly began exploring it.

Did you revisit your book before the second print? Are there parts you've changed?

There were minor revisions, but the story is the same story. No changes were made to its essence. The more time that passes over the story and the more the author lives with those characters and that story, the more the story evolves from being a written story to being a real one. It becomes a story independent from the author. “The Missing Rose” has now escaped the author's elements and has been able to emerge in its own world.

How do you feel about your book being compared to the likes of “The Little Prince,” “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” and “The Alchemist”?

Book critics and world media constantly compare it to those books. I have a couple of perspectives on that. First, all three of these books focus on … universality rather than locality. These are books that have reached people at an equal distance despite their cultural differences. Secondly, as a novel these books are very simple, but there is depth between the lines. They are metaphorical books that have layers of meaning. One journalist said that such a story emerges every 10 years and that “The Missing Rose” is this decade's book of that kind.

Do you think readers of Turkish literature value the Sufi and folk culture components, such as Yunus Emre and Nasreddin Hodja, which influenced your novel, enough? What about world readers?

I look at the reader as a reader, not as someone from Turkey or from another country. But while transmitting my story to the reader, I wanted to share our cultural heritage by mixing it with a Western style. This gave me the opportunity to share with readers in various countries very different concepts and values from the Turkish cultural heritage. I am very happy for that reason. I receive a lot of emails from abroad. A reader from Brazil said he read the story of Yunus Emre several times and cried. Isn't that rather meaningful?

When you first started, did you plan on using local elements in an effort to create universal appeal?

While writing this book I did not go through a planning stage in which I said, “I must use this or that style or method.” Ultimately, I think anyone who benefits from this rich culture would want to share it with others. Aside from that, I did not have an academic perspective on style. I just tried to envision the story that had formed in my mind. And I tried to transfer that to paper.

To what do you owe the success of your book, its translation into many world languages, and its popularity with foreign readers in particular?

I knew the story would transcend the borders of Turkey and become an international story when I was writing it. But honestly, I didn't expect it to become this successful, knowing how difficult the conditions are in the publishing world. The book has been translated into 30 languages so far, and that number is growing. It is expected to reach 50. Of course I had not predicted that it would expand to such a wide geography in such a short period of time. If an author were to make such a prediction people would call him a dreamer -- but dreaming is an author's job. Then again, I don't think the success we are talking about has to do with the success of the author.

The topic and content of your novel is very close to being a script for a film. If you were to get an offer, would you consider turning the book into a film?

I have not received this kind of an offer yet, but I might consider it if [the project] was going to be handled by very, very good hands. For example, there are very good directors in Hollywood, but only a very small number of books turn out to be good films, only around 1 percent. If there is someone that can handle this with the utmost care, [so that the film would fall into] that 1 percent, then I could let them turn the story into a film. Otherwise, I have no plans to do so, because authors tend to be disappointed by such projects.

“The Missing Rose” was printed in an unusually special and meticulous way in Turkey. Did this make you happy?

Thank God, “The Missing Rose” has been published in more than 40 countries. They were printed by the most prestigious publishing houses in each country. The quality of the publishing house inevitably affects the quality of the final product. [The various translations] of the book were displayed at a stand set up in Sultanahmet. Of course it was very pleasing that my book was printed with the same quality or perhaps even better in Turkey, but what's essential is the story. The orange's peel is important, but we buy it for what is on the inside.