A Peculiar Kinship

The Seven Good Years, a collection of autobiographical essays by Etgar Keret, has been published in German under the title Die sieben guten Jahre. Mein Leben als Vater und Sohn. The German translation was the work of none other than Daniel Kehlmann, who has been friends with Keret for many years. In an interview for the Welt newspaper, Keret said of Kehlmann:

“I’ve never asked someone to translate a book of mine. I think Daniel could identify very much with the subject matter... I believe there is a peculiar kinship between Israelis and Germans.”

In a conversation as part of the accompanying events program of the Inside Out – Etgar Keret exhibition, Keret and Kehlmann will delve into this “peculiar kinship” as well as the question of whether Keret’s writing is translatable into German. Kehlmann will also read some of Keret’s work in his translation.