In Israel, Etgar Keret has published three immensely popular collections of sly absurdist fables. The mournful irony that runs throughout his work will not feel odd to American readers, but it has ruffled some feathers in his homeland, where literature still bears an epic, nation-building burden. The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God, released here in English translation in 2001, includes stories about a portal to Hell outside a grocery store in Uzbekistan, a man who tries to rescue his mother’s neglected uterus from a museum display, and a lonely boy who befriends his piggy bank, as well as a novella about the special sector of the afterlife reserved for suicides. It is the only book by an Israeli author to be published in the Palestinian Authority since the beginning of the latest intifada.

Keret’s latest, The Nimrod Flip-Out, available in the U.S. this month, includes stories about a talking fish, a little girl who loves all things that glitter, and the people who once lived on the moon “who could think their thoughts in any shape they wanted.” Gaza Blues, a collection coauthored by the Palestinian writer Samir El-Youssef, was released in the U.K. in 2004, and Keret’s children’s book, Dad Runs Away with the Circus, came out in the U.S. the previous fall. He has also written extensively for Israeli television and film. A movie based on his novella Kneller’s Happy Campers, starring Tom Waits, just premiered at Sundance. Keret was recently in New York to visit the filmmaker Tatia Rosenthal, who is painstakingly creating a claymation film based on his stories. We spoke over pizza not far from her Williamsburg studio.

—Ben Ehrenreich

I. THE JOB WAS CODE-NAMED QUASIMODO

THE BELIEVER: You never thought you would be a writer until after you enlisted in the army. How did that come about?

ETGAR KERET: I joined the army with my best friend. He was the first one to join, so he helped transfer me into his unit. We had a bad time staying in the army. We were very, very depressed. I had an insubordination problem and they kind of kicked me around from unit to unit. I would get into trouble with my commanders.

BLVR: What kind of trouble?

EK: On the first day, in basic training, we were supposed to run a certain distance carrying this sort of small cannon, and then run back. When you came back you were supposed to stand in place, completely still. After we did this, the sergeant looked at us and said, “You, you’re moving! Now everybody has to run.” And we had to run again. Then when we...