Stockholm

Israeli author Yedlin’s deviously clever black comedy takes on death and the ties that linger. Avishay, a front-runner for the Nobel Prize in Economics, dies eight days before the announcement. Avishay’s four closest friends know the committee won’t award the prize to a dead person, and they vow to keep his death a secret until the big announcement. All they have to do is answer all his texts and emails in his voice and put off potential visitors. But there are unintended complications, including a cryptic message from a woman who, based on the friends’ interpretation, might have gotten pregnant with Avishay, and a sudden need to move the decomposing corpse, which results in a macabre collision with an e-bike. As the day of the announcement draws near, friendships fray under the pressure of maintaining the deception, and all four must reckon with the idea that maybe Avishay, who was given to arrogance, really isn’t worthy of their sacrifices. Yedlin puts her characters through the wringer with the nonstop confrontations, which are distressing to them and hilarious to the reader. At the same time, she uses the slapstick situation to ask probing questions about the nature of friendship and mortality. Readers will be amused by this literary variation on Weekend at Bernie’s. (Nov.)