A Horse Walks into a Bar

208 pages

English language

Published Nov. 5, 2016 by Penguin Random House.

ISBN:
978-1-910702-93-2
Copied ISBN!

View on OpenLibrary

View on Inventaire

4 stars (2 reviews)

A Horse Walks into a Bar (Hebrew: סוס אחד נכנס לבר) is a novel by Israeli author David Grossman. First published in Hebrew in 2014 by Ha'kibbutz Ha'meuchad as Sus echad nichnas lebar, the book was translated into English by Jessica Cohen, and published in the UK by Jonathan Cape in November 2016 and in the US by Alfred A. Knopf in February 2017. The title is derived from a common bar joke.Set in a stand-up comedy show in Israel that takes place over just two hours, the novel recounts the tale of a comic who faces a personal crisis while performing his routine, leading to a series of candid and chilling revelations about his past.The novel won the 2017 Man Booker International Prize. The judges said they had been "bowled over by Grossman's willingness to take emotional as well as stylistic risks".

2 editions

Review of 'A Horse Walks into a Bar' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

There are books that drake your breath away. Books that leave you on the verge of tears, holding your breath, wondering what will happen to these people you've suddenly gotten to know so intimately.

For me, this is one of those books.

I read it slowly, despite its slim profile. I read slowly because I didn't want it to end. I read slowly because I didn't want to continue.

But I kept coming back. I had to find out what happened to these people.

This was also a personal book for me. The journey taken in this book was similar to a journey I had taken myself. A journey into the unknown while feverishly trying to unravel the reason for taking the journey in the first place.

Three people are brought together not quite by chance to explore their pasts and decide on their futures.

This triangle is delicately balanced; …

avatar for EricosEagle

rated it

3 stars

Subjects

  • Fiction, humorous, general
  • Fiction, jewish
  • Israel, fiction