A Horse Walks into a Bar
(Kommt ein Pferd in die Bar)

Dov Grinstein is a stand-up comedian – an attention junkie with a big mouth. In a dive bar in a barren industrial area of Netanya, a city between Haifa and Tel Aviv, he arrives for his final show. He mocks his audience, picks on them, becomes openly offensive then tearfully apologises. He plays the fool, tells dull and witty, vulgar and innocent jokes. No subject is off limits – from the Shoah and its victims to Israeli policy in the Palestinian territories. For almost two hours, Dov’s act descends into a rant, as he throws punch after punch at the audience. But for him, this is more than just a show: he is here to unburden himself of his "personal Chernobyl", the trauma, the guilt that has poisoned his life.

David Grossman, born in 1954 in Jerusalem, is one of Israel’s most renowned contemporary writers. In 2008 he received the Geschwister-Scholl Award, in 2010 the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, and in 2017 the Man Booker International Prize for his novel A Horse Walks into a Bar.