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A Voyage to Ur of the Chaldees [The Palace of Shattered Vessels, vol. 2]

David Shahar

Set in Jerusalem before World War II, the many facets of memory, of quests both secular and spiritual, of life itself, form the basis of these remarkable books. Through a series of interconnected stories and episodes, we come to know the varied and colorful inhabitants of a small tangle of streets in this ancient city before the upheaval of the Holocaust and the birth of Israel changed Jerusalem topology and psychology forever. Next to Gabriel Jonathan Luria, freethinking descendant of a 16th century mystic, we find Israel Shoshan, a quiet young librarian who dreams of traveling to Ur of the Chaldees in the footsteps of Father Abraham, and who suffers the torments of unrequited love for proud, high-born Orit Gutkin; the comically clumsy Haim Long-Life, who inadvertently finds himself the head of a dance school; and a host of lovers and cheats, tradesmen and scholars – whether Jew, Christian or Arab.
Languages
English, French, German, Russian
Representation
The Israeli Institute for Hebrew Literature
Title A Voyage to Ur of the Chaldees [The Palace of Shattered Vessels, vol. 2]
Writer's Last Name Shahar
Writer's First Name David
Genre Fiction
Publisher (Hebrew) Am Oved
No. Pages pp.
Book title - Hebrew (phonetic) Ha-Masa Le-Ur Kasdim

  • “ The finest Israeli author to appear in English translation in many years… a fine mixture of the best of S.Y.Agnon and Isaac Bashevis Singer. ”

    St. Louis Post-Despatch

  • “ In France, Shahar is spoken of a ‘le Proust israelien’ ‒ consummate praise, coming as it does from the French. The question that comes to mind is how it is at all possible to combine the Proustian sensitivity for mood, ambience, resonance, atmospherics, color, and surfaces with the concern for cabbalistic symbolism for depth. Yet Shahar has achieved that combination, and more. ”