Reviews
Brimming with life and intelligence.... Sait Faik is a masterful storyteller and a passionate flaneur. He has the keenest eye and the softest heart for quirkiness, loneliness and love. It feels like nothing can surprise him and yet his writing is utterly riveting and full of surprises. -- Elif Shafak Reading these stories by Sait Faik feels like finding the secret doors inside of poems. Little moments-here one about milk, there one about death-open out into corridors of narrative, leading to effects and endings that are consistently both gentle and cutting, simultaneously honest and surprising. A distinctive, humane voice worthy of our serious attention. -- Rivka Galchen Turkey's greatest short-story writer. -- The Guardian These stories unfold like secrets or hallowed gossip passed between friends and neighbors. Each one's telling--intimate and mysterious, earthy and luminous--is propelled universal by a striking glimpse of the human heart. Set in post-Ottoman Istanbul, Sait Faik's characters span a rich cultural array, including Turkish fishmen, Greek Orthodox priests, factory girls, thieves, simit sellers and all manner of lovers. Though these stories take us to a specific place and time, Sait Faik's unflinching eye lands us precisely in our own backyard. -- Anne Germanacos "Sait Faik's best stories combine...innocence with a profound intelligence, showing that people also bring sadness, disappointment, rivalry, frustration and confusion. He should certainly be better known among English readers and this volume is a good place to start... His work is full of humanistic portrayals of laborers, fishermen, children, tradesmen, the unemployed, the poor...one of the best loved writers in Turkey." -- William Armstrong , Hürriyet Daily News "Part of the charm of Sait Faik Abasiyanik, who wrote almost 200 short stories in two decades before his premature death in 1954, is the way he floated above the fray of his turbulent times. This new selection of tales is welcome.... His stories bear multiple readings... they are elliptical, fragmentary, defined mostly by what is left unsaid; they never outstay their welcome.... 'The Silk Handkerchief' [is] a poignant masterpiece of concision." -- The Times Literary Supplement "It's heartbreaking and tender.... Masterly storytelling, beautifully translated." -- The Irish Times "[S]uperbly translated. . . evocative and nostalgic without ever being saccharine. . . Like quality chocolates, each story is worth pausing over to savor the nuances, wondering about the hints and where they lead. . . Elliptical and unexpected, sometimes lyrical, sometimes earthy, using elementary language and a stark, Chekhovian simplicity, these loving tributes to the unnoticed loners on the margins of life reveal the world through Sait Faik's eyes in all its brutality and loneliness and beauty." --Nick DiMartino, University Book Store, in Shelf Awareness, "These stories unfold like secrets or hallowed gossip passed between friends and neighbors. Each one's telling--intimate and mysterious, earthy and luminous--is propelled universal by a striking glimpse of the human heart. Set in post-Ottoman Istanbul, Sait Faik's characters span a rich cultural and linguistic array, including Turkish fisherman (and their fish), Greek Orthodox priests, factory girls, thieves, simit sellers and all manner of lovers. The stories take us to a specific place and time, but because of Sait Faik's unflinching eye, we land precisely in our own backyard." -- Anne Germanacos, author of In the Time of the Girls and Tribute "Reading these stories by Sait Faik feels like finding the secret doors inside of poems. Little moments-here one about milk, there one about death-open out into corridors of narrative, leading to effects and endings that are consistently both gentle and cutting, simultaneously honest and surprising. A distinctive, humane voice worthy of our serious attention." -- Rivka Galchen, "Reading these stories by Sait Faik feels like finding the secret doors inside of poems. Little moments-here one about milk, there one about death-open out into corridors of narrative, leading to effects and endings that are consistently both gentle and cutting, simultaneously honest and surprising. A distinctive, humane voice worthy of our serious attention." -- Rivka Galchen, "[S]uperbly translated. . . evocative and nostalgic without ever being saccharine. . . Like quality chocolates, each story is worth pausing over to savor the nuances, wondering about the hints and where they lead. . . Elliptical and unexpected, sometimes lyrical, sometimes earthy, using elementary language and a stark, Chekhovian simplicity, these loving tributes to the unnoticed loners on the margins of life reveal the world through Sait Faik's eyes in all its brutality and loneliness and beauty." --Nick DiMartino, University Book Store, in Shelf Awareness "[S]ince I have come into possession of Abasiyanik's Stories , I have found myself pursuing loosely structured goals in the region just as an excuse to hop on a train and dive into another succinct tale... Like Robert Walser's walking stories, these meditations on natural beauty and village life often dance around an ugly truth. Lost innocence, unrequited love, misanthropy. Turn down the wrong street and there they are, crystallized in the form of vegetables left out to dry in the cornice of a building. And the more beguiling and bucolic the tales start out, the less prepared we are when, in the words of translators Maureen Freely and Alexander Dawe, 'he pulls the carpet out from underneath our feet... [L]est we indulge in false nostalgia for an innocence that we may never have had to lose in the first place, we are reminded of the man who could not and would not go into town. 'I can imagine it now, all those little twenty-five watt bulbs glowing, and all the flies.' Perhaps this is reason enough not to go into town. But if you must, make sure to bring along Abasiyanik's Selected Stories for the trip." -- Nomadic Press "These stories unfold like secrets or hallowed gossip passed between friends and neighbors. Each one's telling--intimate and mysterious, earthy and luminous--is propelled universal by a striking glimpse of the human heart. Set in post-Ottoman Istanbul, Sait Faik's characters span a rich cultural and linguistic array, including Turkish fisherman (and their fish), Greek Orthodox priests, factory girls, thieves, simit sellers and all manner of lovers. The stories take us to a specific place and time, but because of Sait Faik's unflinching eye, we land precisely in our own backyard." -- Anne Germanacos, author of In the Time of the Girls and Tribute "Reading these stories by Sait Faik feels like finding the secret doors inside of poems. Little moments-here one about milk, there one about death-open out into corridors of narrative, leading to effects and endings that are consistently both gentle and cutting, simultaneously honest and surprising. A distinctive, humane voice worthy of our serious attention." -- Rivka Galchen