“Would you like a cigarette?” Memduh Şevket Esendal captures a whole human condition in a tiny story. The Grazer pursues a character whose name we don’t know, but whom many of us will recognize immediately: the cigarette hunter whose pockets are often empty, whose heart is always “in someone else’s cotton under someone else’s mustache”… In coffee houses, train compartments, and the cool nights of the docks, he carries out an endless smoking campaign with various excuses; and he doesn’t neglect to find reasonable justifications for himself.

This story, in which Esendal skillfully mixes everyday language, sharp observations and humor, is not just a story of “begging for cigarettes”; it is a mirror that shows the subtle cracks of petty interests, self-deception and social politeness. You will smile while you read it, and when you finish it, perhaps at the first opportunity, you will think, “I wonder if I sometimes become a scrounger too.”

Accompanied by the street smells of the first years of the Republic, gossip at the coffee machine and an intimate panorama of Istanbul, Otlakçı offers you both a nostalgic taste and a timeless human story. A small book, a big confrontation: Carry this story in your pocket; who knows, it might pop into your mind during a cigarette break.