Suddenly, a Knock on the Door
“To call Keret apolitical would be to miss a seminal moment in the history of Jewish literature. Indeed, it would be like pigeonholing Isaac Bashevis Singer—at whose knee Keret seems to have learned the art of magic realism, only to use it with more discipline than his master…Keret is a cynic who can’t manage to shake off his hopefulness—the most reliable kind of narrator there is. His true ancestor may not be Singer but Woody Allen, who, in his earlier years, summoned the gods of fantasy to help argue his most famous philosophical insights. And Keret is exhibiting Annie Hall—era talent here, churning out gem after gem.”
Washington Post Book World
Among shortlisted titles for Audie Award Finalist, 2013
Among shortlisted titles for Warwick Prize for Writing Shortlist, 2013
Among shortlisted titles for Audie Award Finalist, 2013
Among shortlisted titles for Warwick Prize for Writing Shortlist, 2013
A dark and surreal collection of stories from the author of The Nimrod Flipout and The Girl on the Fridge. With Suddenly, a Knock on the Door, "It's tempting to say," according to Jonathan Safran Foer, "[these stories] are his most Kafkaesque, but in fact they are his most Keretesque."
Bringing up a child, lying to the boss, placing an order in a fast-food restaurant: in Etgar Keret's short story 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.
Praise