Suddenly, a Knock on the Door

Suddenly, a Knock on the Door is a collection of comedic short stories by Israeli author Etgar Keret. Originally published in 2010, the first English translation appeared in 2012. The book contains thirty-five stories, the majority of which are less than two-thousand words in length. The very short nature of the stories allows them to serve as snapshots into the lives of various strange and satirical characters rather than as traditional narratives with beginnings, middles, and ends.

Some of the more noteworthy stories in the collection include:

In “Suddenly, a Knock on the Door,” the titular story in the collection, a Swedish stranger demands a story from the narrator at gunpoint. Before he can comply, they are interrupted by a Moroccan man taking a door-to-door poll. The narrator tries to get rid of the Moroccan who thinks he is being rude and subsequently pulls a gun of his own. The narrator begins to tell a story but is interrupted by another knock on the door. A pizza deliveryman has arrived, and he, too, pulls a gun and demands a story. The narrator is nervous, but haltingly begins a story about a man who is accosted by three armed strangers who want to hear a story.



In “The Polite Little Boy,” a young boy listens to his parents argue viciously in another room. He interrupts to show them a model airplane he has made, and they both dismiss him, sending him outside to play. The young boy plays with his airplane in the park for a time, encountering a young girl who cruelly taunts him and his parents. The young boy ignores her and heads home. His parents are still visibly upset, but make time to tell the young boy that they love him even when they fight.

“Teamwork” is about a divorced man who uses his ex-mother-in-law as a babysitter for his young son. The babysitter frequently neglects and mistreats the boy, who demands that his father kill her as punishment. Instead, the father manipulates his son into hurting himself while in his grandmother’s care, leading to her being barred from seeing the child. Father and son form a special bond while conspiring together.

“Big Blue Bus” begins with a young child having a tantrum because he wants to take a bus to kindergarten instead of walking. A cartoon he likes to watch has convinced him that if he wishes hard enough, he will be able to take the bus or do anything else he wants. His father tries to reason with the boy and cajole him into walking to kindergarten. Eventually, he gives up, carrying his son the rest of the way, but the boy continues his tantrum. The teacher won’t let the boy stay in his agitated state, so his father takes him to the bus stop to spend the day riding buses instead.



In “Lieland,” a pathological liar awakens one day to find that all his lies have come true. The main character has a long history of lying, dating back to when he was six years old and successfully stole money from his mother. After a strange dream about his mother that harkens back to that lie, he discovers that all his old lies have become reality. He is transported to a dream space where he has to contend with all the lies he has told over time, including a childhood bully and a wounded dog. He eventually finds his way out, but only after coming to terms with all the people his lies have hurt.

“Simyon” is about a young woman who acquires fake marriage papers in order to get out of mandatory military service. She never meets the man she is supposedly married to, and enough time goes by that she all but forgets about the arrangement. One day, two soldiers come to her home and inform her that her fake husband has been killed. The young woman, called to identify the body, experiences a complex series of emotions as she sees him for the first time. She has been unlucky in love and allows herself to briefly wonder what it might have been like to actually marry the dead soldier, who looks like a nice person.

Many more stories flesh out Keret’s collection. Taken individually, they have a tendency to seem too short and not sufficiently fleshed out. However, when taken as a whole, a picture of Keret’s worldview begins to emerge. He approaches a wide variety of subjects irreverently and satirically, without sentimentality or inborn respect for common institutions. The downside of this approach is that his characters are often thinly sketched, and it can be difficult for the reader to feel much sympathy for them during more serious stories, such as “Simyon” or “The Polite Little Boy.”