Here I Am

Foer’s most ambitious and deeply personal work yet, Here I Am examines the Blochs, a Jewish-American family struggling to navigate the challenges of modern family life and questions of Jewish identity. Foer is masterful at capturing their chaos and isolation through witty dialogue and candid inner speech. Recommended By Kate L., Powells.com

A monumental new novel from the bestselling author of Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
 
In the book of Genesis, when God calls out, "Abraham!" to order him to sacrifice his son Isaac, Abraham responds, "Here I am." Later, when Isaac calls out, "My father!" to ask him why there is no animal to slaughter, Abraham responds, "Here I am."

How do we fulfill our conflicting duties as father, husband, and son; wife and mother; child and adult? Jew and American? How can we claim our own identities when our lives are linked so closely to others'? These are the questions at the heart of Jonathan Safran Foer's first novel in eleven years—a work of extraordinary scope and heartbreaking intimacy.

Unfolding over four tumultuous weeks, in present-day Washington, D.C., Here I Am is the story of a fracturing family in a moment of crisis. As Jacob and Julia and their three sons are forced to confront the distances between the lives they think they want and the lives they are living, a catastrophic earthquake sets in motion a quickly escalating conflict in the Middle East. At stake is the very meaning of home—and the fundamental question of how much life one can bear.

Showcasing the same high-energy inventiveness, hilarious irreverence, and emotional urgency that readers and critics loved in his earlier work, Here I Am is Foer's most searching, hard-hitting, and grandly entertaining novel yet. It not only confirms Foer's stature as a dazzling literary talent but reveals a mature novelist who has fully come into his own as one of the most important writers of his generation.

"Here I Am is [Foer's] most ambitious and probing yet....It signals the accomplishment of a writer in full control of his extraordinary creative imagination." Jeanette Zwart, Shelf Awareness

"Richly conceived....Rigorous questions within an accessible story; highly recommended." Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal (Starred Review)

"[Here I Am] showcases Foer's emotional dexterity even as it takes place across a wider canvas than his previous books...This is great stuff, written with the insight of someone who has navigated the crucible of family, who understands how small slights lead to crises, the irreconcilability of love...Sharply observed." Kirkus Reviews

"Foer's...polyphonic, and boldly comedic tale of one family's quandaries astutely and forthrightly confronts humankind's capacity for the ludicrous and the profound, cruelty and love." Booklist (Starred, Boxed Review)

"Foer's intensely imagined and richly rewarding novel...is a teeming saga of members of the [Bloch] family....Throughout, his dark wit drops in zingers of dialogue, leavening his melancholy assessments of the loneliness of human relationships and a world riven by ethnic hatred. He poses several thorny moral questions, among them how to have religious faith in the modern world, and what American Jews' responsibilities are toward Israel. That he can provide such a redemptive denouement, at once poignant, inspirational, and compassionate, is the mark of a thrillingly gifted writer." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Jonathan Safran Foer is the author of two bestselling, award-winning novels, Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and a bestselling work of nonfiction, Eating Animals. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

I'll write in a lot of different directions at once without any objectives other than to write in a way that feels energetic and interesting to me. I don't really question if it's adding up to anything. I don't question if it's good or bad. If I have energy for it, if it holds my — more than my attention, my deep attention — then I keep doing it...

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