The book opens with Keret's 'Cramps', a three page story suspended between poetry and prose, as enigmatic and tragic as Silvina Ocampo's best works 'Glue' is the surreal recount of a woman gluing herself to the ceiling of her house 'For Only 9.99 (Incl. Throughout the book there are strong elements of surrealism and magic realism, almost as if they were the only possible way to leave behind the conflicts in the Middle East and to give more relevance to unordinary tales lived by ordinary characters.

The book in question, Gaza Blues (David Paul Books), contains in the first half fifteen short stories by one of Israel's best writers and screenwriters, Etgar Keret, and, in the second part, a novella by writer and literary critic Samir El-Yussef, born in Lebanon and brought up in Rashidia refugee camp. What has this got to do with a book written in two halves, by two authors, an Israeli and a Palestinian? The answer is simple: practically everything. That is why these writers were part of what was called 'realismo mágico', magic realism. Indeed, in his works, in the same way as in the works of other Argentinean writers such as Adolfo Bioy Casares, Silvina Ocampo, Julio Cortázar and Manuel Mujica Láinez, reality is not always 'real', but it is distorted through the lens of fantasy, of the improbable, the impossible and the incredible.

Jorge Luis Borges claimed, 'Reality is not always probable, or likely'. Book Review: Etgar Keret and Samir El-Youssef's Gaza Blues

Gaza Blues by Etgar Keret