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. Etgar Keret was born in Ramat Gan and now lives in Tel Aviv. A winner of the French Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, he is the author of the memoir The Seven Good Years and story collections like Fly Already. His work has been translated into forty-five languages and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The Paris Review, and The New York Times.
