David Ehrlich – författare

A translated collection of author David Ehrlich's short stories originally written in Hebrew. The translators are writers, teachers, activists, doctors, or rabbis and they all bring a unique voice to stories of life and the search for meaning within it. Ehrich is the author of two short story collections and his bookstore Tmol Shilshom is a haven for avant-garde artists and writers.

New 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.Closely 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, Café Shira is a work of disarming tenderness and bittersweet love.

"Who Will Die Last?" is a collection of David Ehrlich’s short stories originally written in Hebrew and each translated by a different person. The translators are writers, teachers, activists, doctors, or rabbis, and they all bring a unique voice to stories of life and the search for meaning within it. Ehrlich’s characters are quirky and uncomfortable in themselves, yet they are incredibly honest and worthy of the reader’s time and empathy. In "It’s All Right," for instance, the character struggles with hiding his homosexuality from his parents, who are coming for an unexpected visit from Israel. "Three times I move the flowers, trying to give my hovel the appearance of a home. The pink carnations look a little confused." Hidden homosexuality is a theme within the stories, and in this way becomes a metaphor for the many ways in which we all feel different from others and ashamed of this difference. Yet despite the odd characters living in distant or unlikely places, these stories of the struggle to belong show the humor and pathos of the shared human condition.