To Space And Back

About the Author Zenife Pinar was born in 1949 in Samsun, Turkey. Her beloved grandfather, a Crimean Tatar, gave her the name of his own mother a gesture of affection that would shape her sense of identity. The eldest of three children in a civil servant family, she picked up a pen at a young age and never put it down, turning writing into a lifelong passion. Her childhood and adolescence were spent moving back and forth between Istanbul and Ankara. When the family first relocated from Samsun to Istanbul due to her father's job, she lived with them briefly before another transfer took them to Ankara. At that point, Zenife remained in Istanbul in the loving care of her grandparents an arrangement that gave her both a deep sense of belonging and an aching longing for her parents and siblings. Due to frequent school transfers between Istanbul and Ankara, her education was marked by constant change. She married at a young age in Ankara and was unable to pursue higher education, but her devotion to writing only grew stronger. Her talent became evident early on, as she frequently won top prizes for her