Podcasts religion Israel in Translation Etgar Keret's "The Seven Good Years": Part I

Etgar Keret's "The Seven Good Years": Part I

Published: July 1, 2015, 9:46 a.m.

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Host Marcela Sulak reads the opening essay from Etgar Keret\'s memoir\\xa0The Seven Good Years, about\\xa0the seven years between the birth of his son\\xa0and\\xa0the death of his father. Marcela also explains why, although Keret is Israeli, the book was never published in Hebrew nor released in Israel.

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As Keret waits in the hospital for his wife to give birth, he\'s surrounded by the victims\\xa0of a terrorist attack that\\xa0has just occurred, and is pestered by a journalist looking for an "original" reaction to the mass murder.

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"Six hours later, a midget with a cable hanging from his belly button comes popping out of my wife\\u2019s vagina and immediately starts to cry. I try to calm him down, to convince him that there\\u2019s nothing to worry about. That by the time he grows up, everything here in the Middle East will be settled: peace will come, there won\\u2019t be any more terrorist attacks, and even if once in a blue moon there is one, there will always be someone original, someone with a little vision, around to describe it perfectly."

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The podcast features\\xa0songs written by Keret, performed by the band Mouth and Foot. Tune in next week for "Part II," in which Marcela reads another extract from the memoir - this time about the Keret household\'s reaction to the threat of an Iranian nuke.

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Text:
The Seven Good Years. Translated by Sondra Silverston, Miriam Shlesinger, Jessica Cohen, and Anthony Berris. New York: Riverhead Books, 2015.

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Further reading:
Suddenly, a Knock on the Door
The Girl on the Fridge
Missing Kissinger
The Nimrod Flipout
The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God & Other Stories

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Music:
Hape Vehatlapayim (Mouth\\xa0and Foot) - Anonimi
Eviatar Banai\\xa0- Hamon Anashim

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