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Schlepping Through the Alps: My Search for Austria's Jewish Past with Its Last Wandering Shepherd Hardcover – March 29, 2005

by Sam Apple (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 38 ratings
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Hans Breuer, Austria’s only wandering shepherd, is also a Yiddish folksinger. He walks the Alps, shepherd’s stick in hand, singing lullabies to his 625 sheep. Sometimes he even gives concerts in historically anti-Semitic towns, showing slides of the flock as he belts out Yiddish ditties.

When New York-based writer Sam Apple hears about this one-of-a-kind eccentric, he flies overseas and signs on as a shepherd’s apprentice. For thoroughly urban, slightly neurotic Sam, stumbling along in borrowed boots and burdened with a lot more baggage than his backpack, the task is far from a walk in Central Park. Demonstrating no immediate natural talent for shepherding, he tries to earn the respect of Breuer’s sheep, while keeping a safe distance from the shepherd’s fierce herding dogs.

As this strange and hilarious adventure unfolds,the unlikely duo of Sam and Hans meander through a paradise of woods and high meadows toward awkward encounters with Austrians of many stripes. Apple is determined to find out if there are really as many anti-Semites in Austria as he fears and to understand how Hans, who grew up fighting the lingering Nazism in Vienna, became a wandering shepherd. What Apple discovers turns out to be far more fascinating than he had imagined.

With this odd and wonderful book, Sam Apple joins the august tradition of Tony Horwitz and Bill Bryson. Schlepping Through the Alps is as funny as it is moving.
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  1. Print length
    304 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Ballantine Books
  4. Publication date
    March 29, 2005
  5. Dimensions
    5.9 x 1.1 x 8.2 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0345465032
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0345465030
  8. See all details
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4.1 out of 5 stars
38 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • J. Brackett
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2014
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    Wonderful story written to read with easy and entertain as well as inform!
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  • Wolferson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2015
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    Unique and unusual story. Kept my attention throughout.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Corey Fischer
    4.0 out of 5 stars A Chochem in Sheeps' Clothing
    Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2008
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    A chochem is, in Yiddish, a wise person. Sam Apple, the writer, is a lot wiser than Sam Apple, the character he creates, a woody allen-ish hypochondriac awkwardly trying to write a book about a wandering Jewish Austrian shepherd. Apple also scores a literary triumph in his portrait of the one-of-a-kind Hans Breuer, the shepherd.

    Post-modern in its best sense, the book makes wonderful and surprising connections between the search for justice and reconciliation in post-war Austria, the history of domesticated animals, Yiddish song, sexuality and the fine points of herding 675 sheep through mountains, forests and small towns.

    I sat down to read for a few minutes and stayed in the chair for most of the day, following the hapless Sam as he tries to live the life of an alpine shepherd with Hans, Hans' estranged wife and devoted girlfriend, his sons and various eccentric friends like Austria's giant champion scythe-wielding grass-cutter. More is revealed when Sam spends time in Vienna meeting politicians, survivors of the Shoah and anti-racist activists, including the beguiling Irene, a welcome romantic interest whose fling with Sam forms a revealing counterpoint to Hans' tangled love life.

    Through these varied landscapes, Apple's voice is funny, knowing and refreshingly humble. He gracefully mixes and blends the
    Jewish, picaresque, storytelling tradition of Sholem Aleichem and S.Y. Agnon with the irreverence of Phillip Roth and the eye for quirky detail of Bruce Chatwin He's a young writer whose first book jump starts what I imagine will be a surprising and exciting career.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Roger Beal
    3.0 out of 5 stars Spot-on social observations from an adolescent personality
    Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2006
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    "Schlepping Through the Alps" opens a fascinating window for Americans into the little-discussed world of Austria's internal politics. Unfortunately, the view is clouded by Sam Apple's insistence on foisting descriptions on the reader of his neuroses, his sexual adventures with a "hip" Austrian woman, and the banal details of the protagonist's dysfunctional family. Woody Allen worked comic wonders with the neurotic secular Jewish character, but that persona lost its freshness nearly 30 years ago. If a reader may offer advice to Mr. Apple for his next book, it would be to share more of the results of his impressive interviewing and observation skills, and to keep his private life private.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • Wynsum Hatton
    5.0 out of 5 stars Stayed up all night reading.
    Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2015
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    Presents a complex situation without drawing "preachy" conclusions. Funny, honest, entertaining. I stayed up the entire night finishing the book. I am considering giving it as a Xmas present. I should take away a star since it made stay up all night ;-)
    4 people found this helpful
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  • S. Klein
    5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book for anyone to read
    Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2014
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    I loved the book! It transported me to idyllic scenes, and odd but funny and sometimes sad conversations. Totally readable!
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  • csnj
    5.0 out of 5 stars great book
    Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2020
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    Thanks!
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  • chicosan
    3.0 out of 5 stars but far less funny than the promo made you think it would be
    Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Well written, but far less funny than the promo made you think it would be. Interesting cultural window, though. I love the title and cover.
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Amy James
    4.0 out of 5 stars Forgotten Histories
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 9, 2014
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    Sam Apple portrays himself as the stereotypical neurotic New York Jew of film and TV; a fish out of water anywhere outside his native block. Driven by a desire to understand his own family history, to unpack his own paranoias and inspired by a chance encounter with Austria’s last wandering shepherd, a man who sings to his sheep in Yiddish, Apple sets off to explore Jewish history in Austria’s recent past. Part travel story, part biography and part personal journey of discovery, the book starts with a standard culture-clash comedy of manners as the author struggles to follow Hans the singing shepherd and his sheep across the Alps and becomes a deeper account of self-identity, anti-Semitism and the rise of the Far Right in modern day Austria.

    An intriguing story of a man discovering both himself and the world around him, Schlepping takes both the reader and Apple outside our respective comfort zones. It’s easy to see the author’s attempts to uncover anti-Semitism in small rural Austrian towns as a self-fulfilling prophecy – he finds what he expects to find and sometimes has to push quite hard to discover it at all – but this background comes into far sharper relief as he interviews Far Right political leaders about their views. Hans Breuer, the shepherd of the title, gradually unfolds into a complex and intriguing character, a man who sings Yiddish folksongs as an act of political resistance as much as cultural preservation. A pleasantly Jon Ronson-like style mixes humour with pathos in the manner of an extended magazine article; the book is never less than easy to read but it carries with it a lingering and important subtext about the way people think and act and the importance of forgotten histories.
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  • Monkeyrepublic
    4.0 out of 5 stars Very enjoyable, but iffy premise
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 24, 2013
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    I really enjoyed this book - Sam Apple is very funny and eloquent. He meets some really peculiar characters, all completely believable and engaging. As someone with familial links to Judaism and Germany, I really enjoyed the linguistic and cultural elements. Would have liked a bit more in the way of shepherding through rural Austria, but that's just me.

    However, after about half way through the book I started to feel that the whole premise was rather unfair on Austrians as a whole. Apple's trip to Austria took place at a time when the extreme right was having a little renaissance across Europe (and arguably in the States too) - Britain and France providing some notable examples.

    About two-thirds of the way through, the author realises that he actually wants to find that Austria is boiling with racism and is frustrated that he can't find any. He does dig one up in the end. And there is a valid point in there somewhere.

    Do read the book - it's great fun - just don't go thinking you couldn't level (broadly) similar accusations of institutional fascism/racism at other countries. You just couldn't enjoy alpine scenery and accordion music whilst you did so.
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