"Evil Eyes Sea" with Özge Samancı

Buffett Book Talk

The Buffett Institute for Global Affairs hosted a book talk with Buffett Faculty Fellow Özge Samancı, author of the new graphic novel Evil Eyes Sea. The program featured a staged reading as well as a discussion with playwright and visual artist Erin Courtney, Associate Professor in the Department of Radio/Television/Film at the Northwestern School of Communication, and cartoonist and comics historian Gene Kannenberg, Jr., Research and Media Assistant at the Northwestern Herskovits Library of African Studies.

Evil Eyes Sea is a feminist political mystery set in Istanbul during the 1995 elections. It tells the story of two broke students who witnessed an unusual death on a scuba diving expedition. As the case deepens, they become increasingly entangled with political corruption, religious pressure and possibly murder. They try to return to their every day, but their lives are increasingly entangled with the political corruption, religious pressure and economic instability that results from their experience. Samancı says, "The autobiographically-inspired story I tell in Evil Eyes Sea emerged from my college years in Istanbul, my quirky friends and my struggles with being a young woman in Turkey's male-centric culture. In this book, I share a window into a country where narrow political views limit personal power — a place that can be beautiful, but also cruel."