Suddenly, a Knock on the Door

Etgar Keret is an ingenious and original master of the short story. Hilarious, witty and always unusual, declared a 'genius' by the New York Times, Keret brings all of his prodigious talent to bear in this, his sixth bestselling collection. Long a household name in Israel, where he has been declared the voice of his generation, Keret has been acknowledged as one of the country's most radical and extraordinary writers. Exuding a rare combination of depth and accessibility, Keret's tales overflow with absurdity, humour, longing and compassion, and though their circumstances are often strange and surreal, his characters are defined by a familiar and fierce humanity. A man barges into a writer's house and, holding a gun to his head, demands that he tell him a story, something to take him away from the real world. A pathological liar discovers one day that all the lies he tells come true. A young woman finds a zip in her boyfriend's mouth, and when she opens it he unfolds to reveal a completely different man inside. Suddenly, a Knock on the Door is at once Keret's most mature and most playful work yet, and establishes him as one of the great global writers of our time.

Etgar Keret is the author of the short story collections Kneller's Happy Campers, Missing Kissinger and The Nimrod Flip-out. His story collections, bestsellers in Israel, have been published in twenty-nine languages. He has also written a number of award-winning screenplays, and 'Jellyfish', his first film as a director along with his wife Shira Geffen, won the Camera d'Or prize for best first feature at Cannes in 2007. In 2010 he was awarded the Chevalier medallion of France's Order of Arts and Letters.