The Shunra and the Schmetterling

Yoel Hoffmann, "Israel's celebrated avant-garde genius" (Forward), undertakes a story strictly from the child's-eye view and creates one of his most beautiful books to date.Shunra is Aramaic for "cat." Schmetterling is German for "butterfly." In Yoel Hoffmann's new book, these and numerous other creatures, cultures, and languages meet in a magical shimmering hymn to childhood. Hoffmann traces his hero's developing consciousness of the ways-and-wonders of the world as though …