Shira (Hebrew: שירה) is a 1971 posthumously-published unfinished Hebrew-language novel by Shmuel Yosef Agnon first serialized in Haaretz between 1948 and 1966, his longest novel at 558 pages and the last one he wrote. It was published by Schocken Books and edited by his daughter Emuna Yaron [he], who also wrote the afterword, and is widely considered one of the greatest Israeli novels.[citation needed]
Synopsis
Set in Jerusalem in the 1930s and 1940s, the story follows Dr. Manfred Herbst, a middle-aged German-Jewish lecturer of Byzantine history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who suffers from boredom and spends his days prowling the streets searching for Shira, the beguiling nurse he met when his wife, Henrietta, was giving birth to their third child. Against the background of 1930s Jerusalem and the 1936–1939 Arab riots, Dr. Herbst wages war against the encroachment of age.
Band, Prof. Dr. Arnold J. Shira, Agnon’s Posthumous Novel. In: Ariel: The Israel Review of Arts and Letters, Jerusalem: Cultural and Scientific Relations Division, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Winter 1972.
Ezer, Prof. Dr. Nancy. Flirtation in S.Y. Agnon’s Shira. In: Prof. Dr. David Cortell and Prof. Dr. William Cutter, eds., History and Literature: New Readings of Jewish Texts in Honor of Arnold J. Band, Brown Judaic Studies, Number 334. Providence, Rhode Island: Program in Judaic Studies, Brown University, Box 1826, Providence, RI 02912, 2002, pp. 125–136.
Kobak, James B. Shira. In: Kirkus Reviews, New York, New York: Kirkus Media, LLC, 65 West 36th St., Suite 700, New York, N.Y. 10018, Volume 1180, 31 October 1989.
Ramas-Rauch, Prof. Dr. Gila. Shira: S. Y. Agnon’s Posthumous Novel. In: Books Abroad, Norman, Oklahoma: Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, 660 Parrington Oval, Room 119, Norman, OK 73019-3074, Volume 45, Number 4, Autumn 1971, pp. 636–638.
Saks, Jeffrey. At Professor Bachlam’s. In: Jewish Review of Books, New York, New York: Eric Cohen, 3091 Mayfield Road, Suite 412, Cleveland Heights, OH 44118, (216) 397-1073, Number 17, Spring 2014.
Shapiro, Zeva. Shira: A Translator’s Afterthoughts. In: Shmuel Yosef Agnon. Shira[permanent dead link], S.Y. Agnon Library, ed. Jeffrey Saks, with an “Afterword,” pp. 771–790 by Prof. Dr. Robert Bernard Alter. Trans. Zeva Shapiro. New Milford, Connecticut: Toby Press, Koren Publishers, New Milford, CT 06776-8531, 1989, pp. 791–798, reprinted in: American Jewish Congress Monthly, New York, New York: American Jewish Congress, 115 East 57th Street, Suite 11, New York, NY 10022, Volume 58, Number 2, February 1991, pp. 18–20.