The Palace of Shattered Vessels is more than a literary piece. It is a monumental life work. David Shahar spent thirty years on this work of eight or nine volumes, the first three of which are presented here. This work is both an expression of the city of Jerusalem, as well as universal. Shahar confronts the meaning of time, with his childhood memories of Jerusalem during the British mandate in the 1930s providing his point of departure. Through his memories, Shahar attempts to comprehend the world, to return to the beginning - to the primal light as expressed in the Kabbalah, to the act of creation, to find the way to salvation. The journey investigates the development of the Israeli identity and the Jewish elements in this identity. Shahar questions the meaning of being Jewish in the twentieth century from a mystical viewpoint. The mysticism makes room for metaphysical questions, centrally positioning the man in quest, the man without the ready answers. Gabriel Lurie is the main character in this series, especially in the first volume. Lurie is a somewhat messianic figure destined to amend the world. He fails to fulfil his destiny. Lurie, a Levantine figure connected to French culture, lives a hedonistic life of adventure. He plays the role of the father figure to the narrator, and the metaphysical journey in search of meaning in a world empty of religious faith is expressed through Lurie as well as other characters. Art and Eros replace faith.

Born in Jerusalem, David Shahar (1926-1997) was a fifth-generation Jerusalemite. He studied at the Hebrew University. Shahar wrote five novels, an eight-volume historical saga set in Jerusalem, four collections of short stories and a children`s book. He served for many years as chairman of the Hebrew Writers` Association. Shahar divided his time between Jerusalem and Paris, and was greatly read and honored in France. He received many literary prizes, among which the Agnon Prize (1973), the Prime Minister`s Prize three times (1969, 1978, 1991), the French Prix Medicis Etranger (1981), and the Bialik Prize (1984). He was also appointed Commandant de l`Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French government.