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by Etgar Keret (Author), Jessica Cohen (Translator), Sondra Silverston (Translator)
From one of the most acclaimed masters of the short story form whom the New York Times calls "Genius," a darkly funny collection of stories explores themes of identity, reality, and meaning.
Etgar Keret is the world's most famous living Israeli writer, known for writing short stories that are lean and accessible in style, and whimsical, surrealist, and darkly funny in subject. His work explores life's smallest, most unremarkable interactions in ways that are profound and unusual. The characters populating his fiction have relatable work and relationship problems. They live in a world of ever-advancing technology, but it is always degraded by the baseness of human passions and brutality: a character's partner is a reality show contestant from a parallel dimension; another finds the asteroid they paid to have named after their wife is scheduled to collide with earth; and an elderly widow convinces a popular AI program to commit suicide. These stories speak to our current moment in time: the uncertainty and fragility--full of misunderstandings and miscommunications--while looking for reasons and the strength to find hope. His stories reveal the fault lines and uncomfortable truths in our society in a style that is memorably his own.Author Biography
Born in Ramat Gan in 1967, Etgar Keret is a leading voice in Israeli literature and film. His books have been published in over four dozen languages and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, Le Monde, and The New Yorker, among others. His awards include the Cannes Film Festival's Caméra d'Or (2007), the Charles Bronfman Prize (2016), and the prestigious Sapir Prize (2018). Over a hundred short films and several feature films have been based on his stories. Keret teaches creative writing at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Since 2021, he has been publishing the weekly newsletter Alphabet Soup on Substack.
