{"product_id":"schlepping-through-the-alps-my-search-for-austrias-jewish-past-with-its-last-wandering-shepherd-9780345477736","title":"Schlepping Through the Alps: My Search for Austria's Jewish Past with Its Last Wandering Shepherd","description":"Hans Breuer, Austria's only wandering shepherd, is also a Yiddish folksinger. He walks the Alps, shepherd's stick in hand, singing lullabies to his 625 sheep. Sometimes he even gives concerts in historically anti-Semitic towns, showing slides of the flock as he belts out Yiddish ditties. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen New York-based writer Sam Apple hears about this one-of-a-kind eccentric, he flies overseas and signs on as a shepherd's apprentice. For thoroughly urban, slightly neurotic Sam, stumbling along in borrowed boots and burdened with a lot more baggage than his backpack, the task is far from a walk in Central Park. Demonstrating no immediate natural talent for shepherding, he tries to earn the respect of Breuer's sheep, while keeping a safe distance from the shepherd's fierce herding dogs. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs this strange and hilarious adventure unfolds, \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003ethe unlikely duo of Sam and Hans meander through a paradise of woods and high meadows toward awkward encounters with Austrians of many stripes. Apple is determined to find out if there are really as many anti-Semites in Austria as he fears and to understand how Hans, who grew up fighting the lingering Nazism in Vienna, became a wandering shepherd. What Apple discovers turns out to be far more fascinating than he had imagined. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith this odd and wonderful book, Sam Apple joins the august tradition of Tony Horwitz and Bill Bryson. \u003ci\u003eSchlepping Through the Alps \u003c\/i\u003eis as funny as it is moving.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSAM APPLE, who grew up in Houston, is a graduate of the creative nonfiction MFA program at Columbia University. Apple's writing has appeared in a variety of publications, including \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times, \u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eForward, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Jerusalem Report \u003c\/i\u003eas well as on Salon.com. He currently lives in Brooklyn and is a contributing book editor at Nerve.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Ballantine Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50914024227090,"sku":"9780345477736","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_52e65d6e-6bbb-431b-b185-6322d06a4607.jpg?v=1738802947","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/schlepping-through-the-alps-my-search-for-austrias-jewish-past-with-its-last-wandering-shepherd-9780345477736","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}