Author Writes of Love and Loss After Old City Explosion

A June 2026 explosion destroyed author Sarah Tuttle-Singer’s home in Jerusalem’s Old City and killed her neighbor. The blast served as the catalyst for her new book, Fairy Lights in God’s Backyard: A Jerusalem Love Story. Tuttle-Singer describes the event as a moment of profound trauma and disorientation. She sought to make sense of losing her residence in a place she deeply loved.

Rabbi Menachem Creditor suggested she write a book to process the experience. The project evolved into a broader examination of life in the city. The text explores themes of love, loss, friendship, and faith. It focuses on the intersection of the sacred and the ordinary in daily existence.

Tuttle-Singer is a single mother to three children. Her family includes an 18-year-old daughter, a 16-year-old son, and a four-year-old son with special needs. She notes that raising her youngest son has altered her perception of the city. He perceives sounds, textures, and routines in distinct ways. His presence features prominently in the narrative. The book addresses the exhaustion and tenderness of raising a neurodivergent child in a dense, historic environment.

The author defines the book’s title through the concept of Jerusalem as a place where the divine and the ridiculous collide. She refers to the city as God’s backyard, not because of universal agreement on theology, but because of this constant friction. She calls small moments of human connection fairy lights. These moments illuminate the darkness and reveal beauty often missed by observers focused on headlines.

Tuttle-Singer first visited Jerusalem in 1997 as a teenager on a summer program. She made aliyah in 2010 with her then-husband and two young children. After her marriage ended, she remained in Israel and established her home in Jerusalem. In 2016, she lived in each of the Old City’s four quarters for approximately three months. This year-long experiment informed her first book, Jerusalem, Drawn and Quartered, published in 2018.

The new work differs from her previous publication. While her first book focused on discovering the Old City’s communities, the new text examines what happens when a place becomes part of one’s identity. Tuttle-Singer writes about the streets as backdrops to intimate experiences rather than mere history. She aims to capture the strange intimacy of a city where residents know one another and ancient history intersects with domestic life.

The author states that the book is not solely about the explosion. It covers friendships formed in unlikely places and conversations that extend into the dawn. She wanted to write about the darkness without allowing it to swallow the light. Tuttle-Singer notes that she no longer lives inside the Old City walls, but she carries the place with her. The book serves as a love letter to the people who inhabit the city and the experience of being alive there.