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
Good With Kids
"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
“What About Me?“
Written by Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen for “Short Stories on Human Rights“ (2008).
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.
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.
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