Author Description

Hell is in New Jersey is inspired by the Etgar Keret short story A Souvenir of Hell. It follows a disillusioned 29-year-old named Dylan who has worked at Outer Shell gift shop for eleven years. The Outer Shell is located at the exit from Hell, where Inhabitants march in a straight line out of the exit, by the gift shop and back through the entrance. This was once a cultural phenomenon, now nobody cares. Fed up with his station in life and, infatuated with one of the dead women in the line, Dylan goes on a quest to leave his former life behind and, with the help of his two friends, sneak into Hell. Battling a throng of incompetent guards, a Devil with a speech impediment and a villain with a fake English accent Dylan eventually completes his quest and later realizes it was a horrible mistake. Hell is in New Jersey takes Keret's vision and adds a modern theme to it touching on the short attention span of the human race and the disenchantment in most of us.