{"product_id":"cafe-shira","title":"Café Shira","description":"\u003cp\u003eNew to Jerusalem and to adulthood, Rutha serves Café 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 café 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 café--long-married couples, young lovers, an eccentric poet, and a traumatized veteran--all finding refuge and occasionally wisdom among their motley urban community. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eClosely based on Ehrlich's own experiences over the twenty-five years he devoted to running a café that became an important Jerusalem cultural venue and landmark, \u003ci\u003eCafé Shira\u003c\/i\u003e is a work of disarming tenderness and bittersweet love.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDavid Ehrlich (1959-2020)\u003c\/b\u003e was the author of three short story collections, \u003ci\u003eBlue 18, Tuesday \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eand Thursday Mornings\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eWho Will Die Last: Stories of Life in Israel.\u003c\/i\u003e His literary café and bookstore, Tmol Shilshom, is a haven for avant-garde artists and writers, and the site of numerous readings by eminent authors. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichael Swirsky \u003c\/b\u003eis 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\u003ci\u003e.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith an Introduction by Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Syracuse University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50448822010130,"sku":"9780815611424","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_0dba69aa-12a3-4423-8984-ff624b99f8b1.jpg?v=1729739080","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/cafe-shira","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}