Those Extraordinary People

One of the defining aspects of Zeynep Oral's work has been her lifelong engagement with the artists, writers, musicians, actors, directors, and intellectuals who have shaped modern Turkish and international culture. Over more than fifty years, she has interviewed, worked with, travelled alongside, and written about many of the most influential cultural figures of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

This unique body of encounters is reflected most vividly in her acclaimed trilogy published by İnkılâp Publishing: O Güzel İnsanlar (Those Beautiful People), O Büyülü İnsanlar (Those Enchanted People), and O Çılgın İnsanlar (Those Extraordinary People). Together these three volumes form a remarkable gallery of portraits, conversations, and personal memories, preserving not only the lives of exceptional individuals but also the cultural history of an era.

Rather than conventional interviews, these books offer intimate literary portraits of people whose ideas, creativity, and courage transformed literature, theatre, music, cinema, journalism, and public life. Through these encounters, Oral has become not merely a chronicler of culture, but one of its most trusted witnesses.