Etgar Keret Books

From the man the 'New Yorker' declared 'a genius', here is a ridiculously enjoyable, tragicomic collection of essays about raising a son and losing a father.

"Witty, wise, and wild, Etgar Keret's stories are a powerful fictional punch, snapshots that illuminate the dark absurdities, sublime beauty, and hidden truths in everyday life."--Provided by publisher

"There{u2019}s no one like Etgar Keret. His stories take place at the crossroads of the fantastical, searing, and hilarious. His characters grapple with parenthood and family, war and games, marijuana and cake, memory and love. These stories never go to the expected place, but always surprise, entertain, and move... In "Arctic Lizard," a young boy narrates a post-apocalyptic version of the world where a youth army wages an unending war, rewarded by collecting prizes. A father tries to shield his son from the inevitable in "Fly Already." In "One Gram Short," a guy just wants to get a joint to impress a girl and ends up down a rabbit hole of chaos and heartache. And in the masterpiece "Pineapple Crush," two unlikely people connect through an evening smoke down by the beach, only to have one of them imagine a much deeper relationship. The thread that weaves these pieces together is our inability to communicate, to see so little of the world around us and to understand each other even less. Yet somehow, in these pages, through Etgar's deep love for humanity and our hapless existence, a bright light shines through and our universal connection to each other sparks alive."--Provided by publisher

The first children's book to appear in English by the award-winning Israeli master storyteller What happens when a tired boy with a fertile imagination is left to fend for himself at the zoo? Well, if his father is too busy to play and must talk business on his phone, and it's close to naptime, then ... a lot. After freeing sad animals from their cages, the boy takes a ride in an airship with an old turtle and a lazy rhinoceros. Once on board he describes to Habakkuk, the ship's captain, the traits of the rarely seen long-haired cat-boy cub: Long-haired cat-boy cubs need to be played with once an hour to stay alive. Also, you cannot wash a long-haired cat-boy cub in water, they only like to drink juice and chocolate milk, and, most of all, you must listen to a long-haired cat-boy cub's story to the end even if you get a call from work. Long-Haired Cat-Boy Cub is a clever and captivating tale that will appeal to any cub who has busy parents and a busier imagination.

A bestseller in Israel, this volume of short stories--from a case of impotence cured by a pet terrier to a pessimistic Middle Eastern talking fish--is an extraordinary collection from the preeminent Israeli writer of his generation.

Bringing up a child, lying to the boss, placing an order in a fast-food restaurant: in Etgar Keret's new collection, daily life is complicated, dangerous, and full of yearning. In his most playful and most mature work yet, the living and the dead, silent children and talking animals, dreams and waking life coexist in an uneasy world. Overflowing with absurdity, humor, sadness, and compassion, the tales in Suddenly, a Knock on the Door establish Etgar Keret--declared a "genius" by The New York Times --as one of the most original writers of his generation.

These two new voices from Israel and Palestine have no common political agenda (they don't talk about politics to each other), but share a stated desire to make the conflict more complex for their readers. Complex as human life is complex: maddening, contradictory, filled with conflicting emotions, weaknesses, dreams, failings. For those who have not travelled to this region, your only recourse is literature, which addresses why the conflict is so intractable and why the dehumanisation of the enemy through slogans makes the desired resolution so impossible. The wit, daring, and sheer bloody-minded audacity of these marvellous stories makes it, for me, the book of the year for anyone who prefers to listen to the voices of the people of this region instead of the sound of their own rhetoric.

Keret and Gavron masterfully assemble some of Israel's top contemporary writers into a compulsively readable collection.

Ein Busfahrer entdeckt seine eigentliche Berufung, als ein notorischer Zuspätkommer sich vor ihn hinkniet und ihm einfällt, daß sein ursprünglicher Berufswunsch Gott war. Drei Freunde werden in regelmäßigem Turnus von Wahnsinnsschüben heimgesucht, bis sie draufkommen, daß womöglich die Seele des vierten im Bunde, der den Wehrdienst nicht aushielt und sich umbrachte, zu einsam ist. Eine Frau beschwert sich, daß immer nur die Männer erschossen werden und den Frauen nichts als der Trost und der Saft der Mythen bleibt...

W maleńkim królestwie żyli spokojnie Król Dobre Serce, jego Mądry Doradca i dwóch zwykłych ludzi, którzy pracowali na polu truskawek. Zdarzyło się jednak tak, że poddani odeszli (w poszukiwaniu miłości, przyjaźni, rodziny), a król i doradca zostali sami. Listy od szczęśliwych byłych poddanych przyjęli z mieszanymi uczuciami wszak bez poddanych nie ma królestwa. Maleńkie królestwo wybitnego pisarza, jednego z mistrzów izraelskiej i hebrajskiej sztuki słowa to poetycka, wielowarstwowa opowieść o samotności tak władców, jak i poddanych oraz o szczęściu, które daje prawdziwa przyjaźń.