New to Jerusalem and to adulthood, Rutha serves Cafe Shira's devoted customers with a quiet compassion and a sensitive gaze, collecting their stories and absorbing them at her peril. Avigdor, the melancholy and somewhat weary cafe owner, philosophizes about love as he attends to the needs of his patrons while ignoring his own. Christian, a young religious pilgrim, has come to Jerusalem to find God but stumbles upon a much different revelation. These characters form the heart of this wry, often poignant novel narrated through a series of vignettes. They are joined by a colorful cast of characters who frequent the literary cafe-long-married couples, young lovers, an eccentric poet, and a traumatized veteran-all finding refuge and occasionally wisdom among their motley urban community.

Closely based on Ehrlich's own experiences over the twenty-five years he devoted to running a cafe that became an important Jerusalem cultural venue and landmark, Cafe Shira is a work of disarming tenderness and bittersweet love.

About the Author
David Ehrlich (1959-2020) was the author of three short story collections, 18 Blue, Tuesday and Thursday Mornings, and Who Will Die Last: Stories of Life in Israel. His literary cafe and bookstore, Tmol Shilshom, was a haven for avant-garde artists and writers, and the site of numerous readings by eminent authors.

Michael Swirsky is a translator of Hebrew fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. His work has been published by the University of Chicago Press, Yale University Press, Houghton Mifflin, and the Free Press, among others.


Book Information
ISBN 9780815611424
Author David Ehrlich
Format Paperback
Page Count 224
Imprint Syracuse University Press
Publisher Syracuse University Press
Weight(grams) 125g