Synopses & Reviews
A long-lost book reappears, mysteriously connecting an old man searching for his son and a girl seeking a cure for her widowed mother's loneliness.
Leo Gursky is just about surviving, tapping his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he's still alive. But life wasn't always like this: sixty years ago, in the Polish village where he was born, Leo fell in love and wrote a book. And though Leo doesn't know it, that book survived, inspiring fabulous circumstances, even love. Fourteen-year-old Alma was named after a character in that very book. And although she has her hands full keeping track of her brother, Bird (who thinks he might be the Messiah), and taking copious notes on How to Survive in the Wild she undertakes an adventure to find her namesake and save her family. With consummate, spellbinding skill, Nicole Krauss gradually draws together their stories.
This extraordinary book was inspired by the author's four grandparents and by a pantheon of authors whose work is haunted by loss Bruno Schulz, Franz Kafka, Isaac Babel, and more. It is truly a history of love: a tale brimming with laughter, irony, passion, and soaring imaginative power.
Review
"[A] brilliant novel....A most unusual and original piece of fiction — and not to be missed." Kirkus Reviews
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"[I]ngenious and coherent....Krauss has created a crazy spiderweb of associations and missed connections. Miraculously, she actually manages to make all the delicate filaments not only hold together but support the weight of the enormously ambitious narrative. (Grade: A-)" Entertainment Weekly
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"While there are times when Ms. Krauss's gamesmanship risks overpowering her larger purpose, her book's resolution pulls everything that precedes it into sharp focus. It has been headed for this moment of truth all along." Janet Maslin, The New York Times
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"Even in moments of startling peculiarity, [Krauss] touches the most common elements of the heart....In the final pages, the fractured stories of The History of Love fall together like a desperate embrace." Washington Post
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"An achievement of extraordinary depth and beauty. What might have been a dirge has been transformed into a triumphant anthem." Newsweek
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"Only 30 years old, Krauss is a writer of astonishing breadth. Her first novel...was well-received. This book, too, is headed for accolades. With luck, Krauss has many decades ahead of sculpting deliciously witty, complicated novels." Cleveland Plain Dealer
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"Krauss' novel abounds with myriad literary documents — journal entries, letters, lists, translations, excerpts from an autobiography — penned by her characters, and done so in cleverly distinctive styles that spark each personality to life." San Francisco Chronicle
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"Venturing into Paul Auster territory in her graceful inquiry into the interplay between life and literature, Krauss is winsome, funny, and affecting." Booklist
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"[The novel] zips through such webs of mystification that reading it alternates between astonished pleasure and a decoding so laborious as to make you suspect that the message, plain, is less remarkable than the devices used to obscure it." Los Angeles Times
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"[O]ne fine work....As in the best novels, many questions are raised and no easy answers provided. The characters are compelling and true, and the reader will come through the book not just caring about but wanting to heal them." Denver Post
Synopsis
With consummate, spellbinding skill, Nicole Krauss gradually draws together the stories of Leo Gursky and 14-year-old Alma. This extraordinary book was inspired by the author's four grandparents and by a pantheon of authors whose work is haunted by loss — Bruno Schulz, Franz Kafka, Isaac Babel, and more. It is truly a history of love: a tale brimming with laughter, irony, passion, and soaring imaginative power.
Synopsis
New York Times Bestseller
Amazon.com #1 Best Book of the Year in Literature and Fiction
Winner of the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing
Winner of the Borders Original Voices Award
Finalist for the Orange Prize
#1 Booksense Pick
Winner of the Edward Lewis Wallant Award
Winner of France's Prix du Meilleur Livre Ėtranger Award
The illuminating national bestseller: "Vertiginously exciting...vibrantly imagined....[Krauss is] a prodigious talent."--Janet Maslin, New York Times
Synopsis
ONE OF THE MOST LOVED NOVELS OF THE DECADE
A long-lost book reappears, mysteriously connecting an old man searching for his son and a girl seeking a cure for her widowed mother's loneliness.
New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing
Winner of the Borders Original Voices Award
Finalist for the Orange Prize
#1 Booksense Pick
Winner of the Edward Lewis Wallant Award
Winner of France's Prix du Meilleur Livre Ėtranger Award
Synopsis
ONE OF THE MOST LOVED NOVELS OF THE DECADE A long-lost book reappears, mysteriously connecting an old man searching for his son, and a girl seeking a cure for her widowed mother's loneliness. Leo Gursky taps his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he's still alive. But it wasn't always like this: in the Polish village of his youth, he fell in love and wrote a book... Sixty years later and half a world away, fourteen-year-old Alma, who was named after a character in that book, undertakes an adventure to find her namesake and save her family. With virtuosic skill, and soaring imaginative power, Nicole Krauss gradually draws these stories together toward a climax of "extraordinary depth and beauty." "Vertiginously exciting." -- "At least as heartbreaking as it is hilarious." -- "Krauss writers like an angel." -- "One of the most passionate vindications of the written word in recent fiction. It takes one's breath away." -- "It restores your faith in fiction. It restores all sorts of faith" --Ali Smith "It's the sort of book that makes life bearable after all." -- Nicole Krauss has been hailed by the as "one of America's most important novelists." She is the author of the international bestseller , a finalist for the National Book Award, and . Her books have been translated into more than thirty-five languages.
Synopsis
Leo Gursky taps his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he's still alive. But it wasn't always like this: in the Polish village of his youth, he fell in love and wrote a book. . . . Sixty years later and half a world away, fourteen-year-old Alma, who was named after a character in that book, undertakes an adventure to find her namesake and save her family. With virtuosic skill and soaring imaginative power, Nicole Krauss gradually draws these stories together toward a climax of "extraordinary depth and beauty" ().
About the Author
Nicole Krauss is the author of the novel Man Walks into a Room. Her work has appeared most recently in the New Yorker. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.