Sait Faik Abasıyanık is known as a master of the short story, sometimes called the “Turkish Chekhov.” This is an excerpt from a previously untranslated 1951 novella, A Cloud in the Sky. The title refers to a Turkish expression meaning, essentially, "forget about it." It portrays the city as seen by a man from the Marmara island of Burgaz (Sait Faik’s home) as he wanders through Istanbul, unable to take his mind off a young Greek woman he visits in the slums. He sits in taverns, stands on street corners, his mind circling back to this woman. Other chapters describe a pimp, a fortune-teller, prostitutes drawing water from a neighborhood well, a cake shop where gamblers gather. “The Shrimpmonger’s House” describes the bedroom he rents from a poor Greek family to spend time with the woman.