The cries of seagulls echoing in the forgotten nooks and crannies of Istanbul and the waves drifting slowly on the docks… Although Cistern is Sait Faik’s first book of short stories, it is a gateway to his unique narrative universe. From island fishermen to broken hearts in a tavern, from the smell of sweat of poor porters to the cool breeze of the Bosphorus, these stories weave poetry out of everyday sounds.

Sait Faik mesmerizes the reader not with flamboyant sentences, but with a simple but free language; he weighs the words in his palm like seashells, then leaves them just right. The people in his stories are familiar by acquaintance-perhaps your traveling companion on a ferry, perhaps a young fisherman whose glance you missed. And in every line, his passionate belief in humanity is hidden: “It all starts with loving people.”

This book is the first spark of light to surface in the author’s storytelling. When you open the cover of Cistern, you will not step into the coolness of a stone cellar, but into the warm dome of words; you will warm your insides with a simple but shocking literature.