These days, the thrum of traffic and the roar of a bulldozer intrude on conversations at café tables clustered outside the Swedish Hill bakery, an Austin landmark where author Stephen Harrigan and a few writer friends have long gathered to swap ideas. Once Harrigan rode his Trek down the hill to grab a croissant and coffee here for around $1.25; the bill on a recent visit was 10 times higher and the crowded street challenging for cycling. Even this seemingly historic place is a mirage: The café has moved twice. Next door, the bulldozer is busy excavating a huge crater at its prior site.
Change in Austin seems constant, yet Harrigan’s friends maintain their connection. Harrigan credits Lawrence Wright, his Pulitzer Prize-winning neighbor and the breakfast club founder, with inspiring his latest nonfiction book—an exploration of a peasant girl’s visions of the Virgin Mary on a remote mountaintop in Portugal: Sorrowful Mysteries, The Shepherd Children of Fatima and the Fate of the Twentieth Century (Alfred A. Knopf, April 2025).
