There Is A Snake In Alemdağ, as Turkish original name is Alemdağ'da Var Bir Yılan, is Sait Faik Abasıyanık’s last short story book published during his lifetime. It was first published in 1954 by Varlık Publications. In its first edition, the book's title appeared as Alemdağında Var Bir Yılan, and this situation resulted from a communication error between the author and the publisher. Its name was corrected in subsequent editions.

Structural Features

The book consists of seventeen short stories. The names of these short stories are as follows: “Such A Story”, “The Man Created by Loneliness”, “There Is A Snake In Alemdağ”, “Panco’s Dream”, “Melahat's Statue”, “So, Master”, “A Story for Two People”, “Rıza Millionaire”, “The Ivy-Covered House”, “Eftalikus’s Coffeehouse”, “Hush Hush!”, “The Death of the John Dory”, “Head and Bottle”, “I Can't Go Down to the Market”, “Dolapdere”, “A Disease”, “Snake's Sleep”. At the end of the work, Fikret Ürgüp’s article titled “Sait Faik’s Reality,” published in the June 1954 issue of Varlık Magazine, is included. Some short stories in the book had not been published in any magazine or newspaper before.

Themes

The book predominantly features themes of individual loneliness, lovelessness, introversion, social pressures, turning towards nature, and escape from reality. The uneasiness created by urban life and the feeling of loneliness within crowds are combined with Sait Faik's power of individual observation.

Narrative Techniques

Compared to the author's previous short stories, the narrative style in this book has undergone a significant transformation. Especially in stories like “Such A Story,” “Panco’s Dream,” and “Snake’s Sleep,” a surreal (surrealist) narrative stands out. The subconscious, dreamlike imagery, and an associative structure are prominent. The narrative sometimes approaches the logic of dreams.

Social Criticism

In some short stories, the individual's resistance to social rules is observed. In stories like “I Can't Go Down to the Market,” there are explicit criticisms against moral norms. Society's oppression, exclusion, or judgment of the individual also parallels the author's own life experiences.

The Author's Position

Sait Faik is both an observer and a subjective narrator in this book. The short stories can also be considered a window into the author's inner world. Texts such as “Head and Bottle” and “Eftalikus’s Coffeehouse” provide clues about the literary creation process and the author's understanding of art. The author questions literature and himself as a direct narrator.

Panco's Character

In the first four short stories of the book, a dreamlike character named Panco stands out. This character is the author's imaginary friend. The author's relationship with Panco transforms into an inner world narrative shaped by loneliness. This character appears in the texts as both an emotional attachment and a product of imagination.

There Is A Snake In Alemdağ is regarded as a formal and thematic peak in Sait Faik Abasıyanık's artistic career. This book, in which the author conveys his individual inner conflicts by blending them with dreamlike narratives, holds a special place in Turkish short story writing in terms of modernist expansions. At the same time, it is a work in Sait Faik's literature where reality and imagination, society and the individual, and the outer world and the inner world are processed together.