Subscribe to Alphabet Soup, Keret's newsletter (powered by Substack): Fiction, non-fiction, thoughts, writing tips and anything else that would make an easily influenced curious person double click.

“I’ve been looking at [Keret’s] Substack and it’s so witty and enjoyable, and he’s clearly having a wonderful time doing it, I thought, ‘maybe I could do that’” — Salman Rushdie, The Guardian

Missile Meditations

The Iranian missile attack on Israel last week caught me just as I’d finished a yoga class focused on relaxing the eyeballs. It was a great class, held entirely with eye masks on, and when it was over and I opened my eyes, the world looked a little different – just a bit lighter and softer. When I walked out of the yoga teacher’s home and tried to hail a cab, I noticed the streets were empty. I looked at the rideshare app, but it told me I was located in Riyadh (GPS signals in Israel have been intentionally scrambled by the military for some time, but this was a new wrinkle). When the first air-raid siren sounded, I found myself huddled in a nearby bomb shelter with a few dozen frightened, sweaty locals. That’s where I met Mohammed, a bus driver who told me he was claustrophobic. I said I wasn’t claustrophobic, but I also wasn’t keen on spending the evening in the crowded shelter. I suggested we hop on his bus and get out of there.

Substack logo Read at Alphabet Soup

"Intention"

Deep in his heart, Yechiel-Nachman had made peace with his prayers going unanswered. Because prayer was the pure yearning for compassion and justice, whereas life was life: cruel, dispiriting, insulting. It was therefore only natural that two such contrasting worlds could never converge. But on October 7, 2023 – the 22nd day of Tishrei in the year 5784 – something in Yechiel-Nachman broke.

Photograph: Bumble Dee/Alamy

אוטוקורקט

"היקום הקורס אל תוך עצמו של קרת הוא היקום שלנו, ולמול התחושה שלא נותרו לנו בו כמעט שום נקודות ייחוס יציבות, הכתיבה הקרתית היא נקודת ייחוס יציבה; ומוכרותה, שבנסיבות אחרות הייתה יכולה לשמש כטיעון כנגדה, הופכת לעוגן חיוני מתמיד. כי בקיום שמשתנה באופן בלתי נסבל כל כך, הופך הקבוע והיציב לאפשרות היחידה שלנו לזהות את עצמנו, לנקודת הייחוס שלמולה אנו יכולים לתפוס את ההשתנות ולאמוד את דרכנו על פני המסלול הבלתי מובן שעושה הכוכב שבו נגזר עלינו לחיות."

- שירי ארצי, ידיעות

“What About Me?“

Written by Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen for “Short Stories on Human Rights“ (2008).

More films

Random quote

Lev holds my hand and says, “Daddy, I'm a little nervous.” He's seven, and seven is the age when it's not considered cool to talk about fear, so the word “nervous” is used instead.

— "Pastrami"

More stories

איך זה נגמר בסוף כולם יודעים

נקמה מול נחמה — זהו העימות האמיתי המתחולל כרגע בישראל, והוא מתקיים בכל הגזרות: מפגישת הצעקות של ראש הממשלה נתניהו עם ראשי מערכת הביטחון ועד להתפרעות בשדה תימן. אלוהים גדול, על זה כולם מסכימים, אבל מה עומד אצלו קודם ברשימת המטלות: פדיון שבויים או מחיקת זרע עמלק?

More non-fiction

Words Without Borders, 2010

I believe that there is a truth. I believe it is very difficult to articulate that truth. I try to go in that direction, but I don’t pretend I will get there.

More interviews

New York Times, 2012

For Keret, the creative impulse resides not in a conscious devotion to the classic armature of fiction (character, plot, theme, etc.) but in an allegiance to the anarchic instigations of the subconscious. His best stories display a kind of irrepressible dream logic

More reviews