Istanbul:
A Turkish teenager who won fame as a fantasy novelist has died in a mysterious fall from an Istanbul balcony which police are investigating as a possible suicide, reports said Thursday.
Eren Demir, 16, earned renown at the age of 12 with his fantasy novel "Kristal Kilic" ("The Crystal Sword") and Turkish media dubbed him as the second youngest novelist anywhere in the world.
Demir was talking to one of his friends on the phone when he plunged 10 floors to his death on Tuesday night from his house in Atakoy, an upscale residential area on the European side of the city.
The young man died on the spot, Hurriyet newspaper reported.
Police -- who found Demir's destroyed cell phone by his body -- were investigating the circumstances surrounding the death which they suspect could be suicide, it added.
Demir's parents, both prominent Turkish psychiatrists, were not at home when their son died.
Demir was a 9th grade student at Uskudar American Academy, one of the most academically rigorous private high schools in Istanbul.
He was a fan of heavy metal, Japanese "manga" comics as well as fantasy and science fiction TV series and had aspired to be a computer scientist, according to a 2011 interview with Turkish media.
He also wrote several articles on child psychology for the non-academic Turkish journal "Psychiatry and Thought".
"The Crystal Sword" takes place in an imaginary country where elves and dwarves live happily together.
According to Turkish media, Demir was the second youngest person to write a full published novel after Switzerland-based Christopher Beale who penned a novel, "This and Last Season's Excursions", when he was six.
Eren Demir, 16, earned renown at the age of 12 with his fantasy novel "Kristal Kilic" ("The Crystal Sword") and Turkish media dubbed him as the second youngest novelist anywhere in the world.
Demir was talking to one of his friends on the phone when he plunged 10 floors to his death on Tuesday night from his house in Atakoy, an upscale residential area on the European side of the city.
The young man died on the spot, Hurriyet newspaper reported.
Police -- who found Demir's destroyed cell phone by his body -- were investigating the circumstances surrounding the death which they suspect could be suicide, it added.
Demir's parents, both prominent Turkish psychiatrists, were not at home when their son died.
Demir was a 9th grade student at Uskudar American Academy, one of the most academically rigorous private high schools in Istanbul.
He was a fan of heavy metal, Japanese "manga" comics as well as fantasy and science fiction TV series and had aspired to be a computer scientist, according to a 2011 interview with Turkish media.
He also wrote several articles on child psychology for the non-academic Turkish journal "Psychiatry and Thought".
"The Crystal Sword" takes place in an imaginary country where elves and dwarves live happily together.
According to Turkish media, Demir was the second youngest person to write a full published novel after Switzerland-based Christopher Beale who penned a novel, "This and Last Season's Excursions", when he was six.
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