How to Lose Gracefully

Etgar Keret writes deadpan, tragicomic stories about ordinary people who experience extraordinary things: they periodically become possessed by the psychotic spirit of a dead friend; their parents shrink to pocket-size; their sweet girlfriends become hairy, drunken sports fan at night.

Already popular in his native Israel, Keret is now gaining a following in the United States. His work has appeared in The New York Times, in a regular column on Nextbook, and now with a new collection of short stories, The Nimrod Flipout, published by FSG. He recently visited New York as part of the PEN World Voices festival.

This story includes a reading of Keret’s “Dirt,” by Chanan Tigay.

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Sara Ivry is the host of Vox Tablet, Tablet Magazine’s weekly podcast. Follow her on Twitter @saraivry.