Dare to Disappoint is Ozge Samanci‘s 200-page autobiographical graphic novel, under contract with Macmillan: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It will be released on 17 November 2015.
Samanci completed a PhD in Digital Media in 2009 and went on to an Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. She is now an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University.
A description from the publisher:
“Growing up on the Aegean Coast, Ozge loved the sea and imagined a life of adventure while her parents and society demanded predictability. Her dad expected Ozge, like her sister, to become an engineer. She tried to hear her own voice over his and the religious and militaristic tensions of Turkey and the conflicts between secularism and fundamentalism. Could she be a scuba diver like Jacques Cousteau? A stage actress? Would it be possible to please everyone including herself?
In her unpredictable and funny graphic memoir, Ozge recounts her story using inventive collages, weaving together images of the sea, politics, science, and friendship.”
From Kirkus Magazine:
“Humor and youthful angst lighten this graphic memoir of life in a country pulled strongly in different directions by conflicts between Western and conservative Muslim values. (…) A bright, perceptive bildungsroman with a distinctive setting.”
