ForthcomingThe Book of the North Wind
Novel · 2026
New novel7th printing
The Light at the Bottom of the Well
A hydrologist returns to her village after forty years and finds her own childhood at the bottom of a dry well.
“Where the water withdraws, the earth gives back everything it hid, one thing at a time; it does not hurry — it sends the smell first.”
- Books
- 7
- Languages
- 8
- Printings
- 45+
Free
Read online
Complete stories and opening chapters from the novels. Your typeface, size and paper settings are remembered, and the reader picks up where you left off.
Where you left off
Sample chapter
The Light at the Bottom of the Well
Selma, a hydrologist returning to her village after forty years, finds a chest at the bottom of the dry well. The opening chapters.
7 min
Full text
The Eclipse Notebook
Three of the stories set in one town on the night of a lunar eclipse, from the collection that won the Sait Faik Story Award.
6 min
Sample chapter
The Wind Gatherers
The summer when Rıza, the last sailmaker, and Ada, the engineer, describe the same wind in two languages.
3 min
Full text
The Last Letter Writer
The story of Şükrü Bilen, who wrote other people’s letters at the mosque gate for forty-one years.
3 min
Sample chapter
The Bird at the Window
Deniz’s summer of mending a bird that hit the balcony window. Ages 7+, for reading together.
2 min
Calendar
Upcoming signings and talks
Bring your own copy or buy one on the spot. New dates are announced in the newsletter first.
22Aug2026
Workshop
Writing the Memory of a Place — Two-Day Workshop
Sinop · Sinop Culture HouseSaturday, 10:00
26Sept2026
TalkFree
Drought and Silence — A Talk
Ankara · Çankaya Municipality Contemporary Arts CentreSaturday, 19:00
02Oct2026
OnlineFree
Online Book Club Meeting
Online · Zoom (link sent through the newsletter)Friday, 21:00
From the books
“Drought is not the rain stopping. Drought is nobody waiting for rain any more.”
“A village remembers as deep as its well; once the bottom shows, everyone looks the other way.”
“For forty years I looked for water. It turns out I was looking for the ones who kept quiet.”
About
Novelist and short story writer — b. 1978, Sinop
Nehir Yalın was born in Sinop in 1978. She studied Turkish literature at Istanbul University and spent eleven years on the culture desk of a daily newspaper.
Her first book, The Silent Map, appeared in 2013. Her novels — Kırkikindi, The Wind Gatherers and The Light at the Bottom of the Well — have gone through dozens of printings in Turkey and been translated into eight languages.
In 2019 The Eclipse Notebook won the Sait Faik Story Award. She still lives between Sinop and Istanbul, and likes walking by the sea rather more than writing in the morning.
Journal
From the notebook
18 June 2026
On writing in the morning
Not because I like getting up at half past five, but because at that hour nobody wants anything from me.
Read2 May 2026
The well notebooks: where a novel comes from
Four pages from the notebook I kept while writing The Light at the Bottom of the Well.
Read21 March 2026
Reader letters, and not being able to reply
I read every letter that arrives; I can't answer them all. I wanted to explain why.
ReadIn the press
What people say
Interview12 April 2026
“Drought is not the rain stopping; it is the waiting ending”
Kitap Eki
Review28 February 2026
Why are Nehir Yalın’s coastal novels read so widely?
Edebiyat Defteri
News4 November 2025
The Wind Gatherers reaches its eighth language
Yayın Dünyası
Podcast19 September 2025
The Writer’s Desk — Nehir Yalın
Açık Radyo