Become a Readings Member to make your shopping experience even easier. Sign in or sign up for free!

Become a Readings Member. Sign in or sign up for free!

Hello Readings Member! Go to the member centre to view your orders, change your details, or view your lists, or sign out.

Hello Readings Member! Go to the member centre or sign out.

Suddenly A Knock On The Door
Paperback

Suddenly A Knock On The Door

$24.99
Sign in or become a Readings Member to add this title to your wishlist.

From the critically acclaimed master short-story teller Etgar Keret, his long-awaited and biggest selling collection - the first in nearly ten years.

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.

Read More
In Shop
Out of stock
Shipping & Delivery

$9.00 standard shipping within Australia
FREE standard shipping within Australia for orders over $100.00
Express & International shipping calculated at checkout

MORE INFO
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Random House Australia
Country
Australia
Date
1 February 2012
Pages
304
ISBN
9781742752778

From the critically acclaimed master short-story teller Etgar Keret, his long-awaited and biggest selling collection - the first in nearly ten years.

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.

Read More
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Random House Australia
Country
Australia
Date
1 February 2012
Pages
304
ISBN
9781742752778
 
Book Review

Suddenly A Knock On The Door
by Etgar Keret

by Scott Noble, Readings St Kilda, Jan 2012

Declared a genius by The New York Times, Israeli author Etgar Keret has a new, long-awaited collection of short stories, Suddenly a Knock on the Door. He’s been a hit at the Adelaide and Ubud (Bali) writers’ festivals in recent years, had a story in a recent edition of The New Yorker – and he will be visiting our shores this month. If you haven’t familiarised yourself with Keret’s snappy, often darkly funny stories, now is the perfect time to make his acquaintance.

Keret serves up short sharp treats, overflowing with satire, absurdity and realism – which are dark, funny, strange and even occasionally cruel. He is more interested in his situations than his characters, who are often flat and functional – but with humanity that is at times familiar, then completely foreign. Keret’s surreal stories encompass the living and the dead, talking animals, and more. This collection includes an extraordinary tale of a woman who finds a zip in her boyfriend’s mouth; and in the superb opening story, a request for a story – from an author suffering writers’ block – takes a dark twist.

Keret began writing stories to find ‘a place to hide from life itself’ and this collection feels just like that – and as such, doesn’t invite continuous reading. Read a few, put it down, go experience the real world and then come back. You will be rewarded.

Scott Noble is manager of Readings St Kilda.