[6] In 1988 Kestin was the creator and editor of a short-lived daily newspaper in Israel, The Nation, created as an English-language rival to the Jerusalem Post.
[11] Writer Jonathan Evison calls Shoeshine Cats, a "criminally underappreciated" book, stating that it "left me breathless with its mastery of character and suspense.
[13][14][15][16] Individuals posting on social media in response to pre-publication publicity promotional copy that read, "While the U.S. and the West sit by, the Moslem armies – taking a page from the Nazi playbook – prepare to kill off the entire population," called the promotional statement inflammatory "othering" of Muslims.
[15] But Mark Horowitz, writing in Commentary, notes that the imagined destruction of Israel by Muslim armies is a popular fictional trope, citing Jonathan Safran Foer’s Here I Am (2016), and Michael Chabon's 2007 The Yiddish Policemen's Union in which Jewish refugees have settled in Alaska after Israel is overrun by Arab armies.
"[16] Bookstores, including Amazon.com, continued to sell hardcover copies already in inventory, and Kestin has published the book himself in paperback and digital editions under the Shoeshine Press imprint.