Wouldn’t it be nice if we could fix everything that goeswrong in our life? In the title story of ‘Autocorrect’, Etgar Keret’s newcollection, Yuvi wakes up on what he hopes will be an ‘extra special day’ - ifthe Chinese sign a deal with the company where he’s the CEO. His doorbell ringsand it’s his father, hoping to travel together to their office. Yuvi says,“I’ll see you there,” but his father never makes it to the office. He is killedin a horrific traffic accident.

Yuvi’s alarm goes off and he wakes to find his fatherstanding outside his door, offering to drive him to the office. In this GroundhogDay scenario, Yuvi has a chance to reverse the bad outcome of the previousday’s tragedy. But will his fortunes be better this time around?

‘Autocorrect’ is one of the 33 short, short stories in Autocorrectby Etgar Keret, translated by Jessica Cohen and SondraSilverston (Riverhead Books, May 27, 2025). Readers familiar withKeret will be entertained by more examples of his creative imagination, whilethose meeting him for the first time will encounter his original humorous insightsinto Israeli culture and modern life, with a touch of science fiction thrown infor good measure.

Time travel, aliens, and alternative realities all makeappearances in the stories, while others mirror our lives, showing imaginativereflections of Israel and Israelis. Each of the stories satisfies in its ownunique way.

I had previously read many of the book’s stories in theoriginal Hebrew, but translators Cohen and Silverston do an excellent job ofshowcasing Keret’s humor for English readers. No matter what the language, hisstories leave one eager to start the next one. Here are brief descriptions ofsome of my favorites.

‘A World without Selfie Sticks’ - a life-changing realityshow from another world.

'Point of No Return' - the thin line between real life andsimulated real life.

'Genesis, Chapter 0' - beyond pain, and boredom, and fear,everything becomes light.

‘For the Woman Who Has Everything’ - for the reader who hasread everything, something different.

The stories of Autocorrect are extremely short, butthey’ll leave you wanting more. We’re sure to meet the boundless creativity andhumor of Etgar Keret again very soon.

EtgarKeret was born in Tel Aviv in 1967. His books have beentranslated into 37 languages, and he has been published in the New York Times,the Guardian, the New Yorker, Le Monde and other periodicals. Keret has writtena number of screenplays; “Jellyfish”, his first film as director alongside hiswife Shira Geffen, won the Caméra d’Or prize for best first feature at Cannesin 2007. Keret has received the Chevalier Medallion of France's Ordre des Artset des Lettres (2010); the Charles Bronfman Prize (2016); and the SapirPrize for Literature (2018). His short story collection Fly Awaywon the 2019 National Jewish Book Award for Fiction.

Jessica Cohen is a British-Israeli-American literarytranslator who shared the 2017 International Booker Prize with author DavidGrossman for her translation of A Horse Walks into a Bar.

Sondra Silverston is a native New Yorker who haslived in Israel since 1970. She has trans­lat­ed works of Etgar Keret, AyeletGun­dar-Goshen, Zeruya Shalev, and Savy­on Liebrecht. Her trans­la­tion of AmosOz’s Between Friends won the 2013 Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awardfor fic­tion.

Originally posted on The Times of Israel.