The Task Of This Translator: Stories

by Hasak-Lowy, Todd

• ISBN13: 9780156031127
• ISBN10: 0156031124
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-06-01
• Publisher: Lightning Source Inc

Summary

Stylistically daring, morally perplexing, and outrageously funny, Todd Hasak-Lowy's The Task of This Translator marks the debut of a writer of extraordinary talent. In these seven stories, Hasak-Lowy captures the absurdity that often arises when very personal crises intersect with global issues such as ethnic violence, obesity, and the media. A journalist sets out to write an investigative piece on a dieting company that uses bodyguards to protect overeaters from themselves but loses his bearings when he becomes a client and is paired up with a bodyguard of his own. In the coffee shop of Israel's Holocaust memorial museum, a stale pastry triggers a brawl between an American tourist and the Israeli cashier. A man misplaces his wallet shortly before a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan. An unwilling and mostly unqualified slacker finds himself cast into the role of translator for the bitter reunion of a family torn apart years earlier by unspecified brutality. A standout story collection, The Task of This Translator is funny, intricate, and deeply human.

Author Biography

Todd Hasak-Lowy is an assistant professor of modern Hebrew literature at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Table of Contents

On the Grounds of the Complex Commemorating the Nazis' Treatment of the Jews	p. 1
Will Power, Inc.	p. 21
The End of Larry's Wallet	p. 61
The Interview	p. 117
The Task of This Translator	p. 149
Raider Nation	p. 179
How Keith's Dad Died	p. 211
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