by Nicole Krauss
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Product Description
The illuminating national bestseller: "Vertiginously exciting…vibrantly imagined….[Krauss is] a prodigious talent."—Janet Maslin, New York Times
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.
Amazon.com Review
Nicole Krauss's The History of Love is a hauntingly beautiful novel about two characters whose lives are woven together in such complex ways that even after the last page is turned, the reader is left to wonder what really happened. In the hands of a less gifted writer, unraveling this tangled web could easily give way to complete chaos. However, under Krauss's watchful eye, these twists and turns only strengthen the impact of this enchanting book. The History of Love spans of period of over 60 years and takes readers from Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe to present day Brighton Beach. At the center of each main character's psyche is the issue of loneliness, and the need to fill a void left empty by lost love. Leo Gursky is a retired locksmith who immigrates to New York after escaping SS officers in his native Poland, only to spend the last stage of his life terrified that no one will notice when he dies. ("I try to make a point of being seen. Sometimes when I'm out, I'll buy a juice even though I'm not thirsty.") Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer vacillates between wanting to memorialize her dead father and finding a way to lift her mother's veil of depression. At the same time, she's trying to save her brother Bird, who is convinced he may be the Messiah, from becoming a 10-year-old social pariah. As the connection between Leo and Alma is slowly unmasked, the desperation, along with the potential for salvation, of this unique pair is also revealed. The poetry of her prose, along with an uncanny ability to embody two completely original characters, is what makes Krauss an expert at her craft. But in the end, it's the absolute belief in the uninteruption of love that makes this novel a pleasure, and a wonder to behold. --Gisele Toueg
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Good book club discussion, 2008-11-22
This book was hard to follow. Half the people in my book club thought one of the girls was a boy (the way the author wrote character). I would not recommend this book to anyone but a book club read. The reason for the book club reading this book is that the we all missed or found things that others didn't catch. So, it was a very lively book club but we basically all agreed (12 women) that we would not have finished the book if it wasn't our book club book.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Life, death, and the meaning in between, 2008-11-09
An amazing synthesis of literary talent, interwoven characters, existential themes, poignant insights, heartbreaking tragedies, and humorous relief, Krauss' masterpiece is an irresistible, and an unforgettable, creation. The story unfolds through the increasingly interconnected journeys of several narrators who each seek to find direction, meaning, and purpose in their lives. Entertaining, suspenseful, and thought-provoking, the novel highlights the human struggle of living in the face of death vs. dying in the face of life.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 Love, Loneliness, and Survival , 2008-10-27
This novel gets off to a magnificent start with the story of Leo Gursky, a very old Polish-American refugee living in New York. Leo's story is heart-wrenching, one all of us hope not to have. He is completely alone and each day does something to make himself stand out so that people will know he is alive. He fears dying all alone in his apartment and no one finding him until the stench alerts them. Whether it's knocking over displays in a grocery store or posing nude for an art class, Leo strives to be seen. Long ago, Leo had been in love with Alma. Their love was ended by the Holocaust. Both escaped to America, but when Leo finally found Alma, it was too late for their love to resume. He spends his entire life regretting the loss of her and their son. He is an extremely sad but well-written and sympathetic character who narrates many of the chapters.
Other chapters are narrated primarily by Alma, a young Jewish teen in New York, who is determined to pull her mother out of the emptiness her life has become since Alma's father died. Along with her quirky younger brother, they exemplify the heartache of losing a parent when the surviving parent just can't cope. Alma knows that she has been named after a character in a book called "The History of Love" and becomes obsessed with finding the other Alma.
The plot is multi-layered and in its final stages links the young Alma to the dying Leo in a somewhat confusing but tearful ending. The story was sometimes hard to follow, the numerous characters and their link to others sometimes tricky to comprehend. While I did enjoy it, I like a nice, tidy ending with all loose strings tied up. This is not that kind of novel. If you revel in unanswered questions, ambiguous situations and characters, and drawing your own conclusions, you will enjoy this much more than I did.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A multi layered story, 2008-10-25
The History of Love is about at least two persons: Leo Gursky and Alma Singer, both living in New York. Leo is an old Polish-American jew and Alma is a 12-15 year old girl, who has lost her father and is living with her intellectual mother and her religious kid brother. But the book has many more layers. It is not hard to follow....but then again, maybe it is hard to follow all the layers. It is not until the last pages, or close to the last pages, that all loose ends are being tied and you actually understand what has been going on - or rather why it has been going on.
Leo is a refugee - he made his way to America in his youth, trying to get away from the nazis in Europe and ended in New York. He immediately find that girl he fell in love with back home in Poland and who had gone to America before him. But when their first meeting in New York does not go well, Leo (tries to) forget all about her and abandons every though of seeing her ever again.
But in the next many, many years to come, he still follows her and her family from the hidden siedlines.
Alma, the young girl, has one simple wish, and that is that her mother will come out of her loneliness and find happiness again.
When her mother is asked to translate a certain book - The History of Love" - Alma hopes that the man who has asked for the translation, perhaps could be a good match for her mother. It is because of this book that Leo's and Alma's lives are connected, but before that happens, all characters are going to go through a lot.
This very short review really does not show just how complex this book is. There are all the layers that I mentioned before and many more persons than mentioned here. I didn't really get through this book as easily as I had expected and actually I really do not know what I think about it. But it wasn't a bad read at all.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
My Highest Recommendation, 2008-10-24
This tale is woven together so masterfully it's nearly impossible to put down. The characters and their distinct voices are rich, unique, and memorable in a way that has worked into my own personal history of the love of reading.
We begin by getting to know "the oldest man in the world," Leopold Gursky. There's an ironic aspect to "Leo" as he attempts to make himself known to the world everyday. He's afraid he'll die and no one will know he's missing. This is, perhaps, the result of having to make himself invisible during the years of Nazi occupation . . . and for becoming non-existent in the life of his one true love, Alma, (who moves to America before him and marries someone else), and his son, who is a famous writer. Leo does this by making little scenes like knocking over displays in stores and interacting with his best friend "Bruno." Meanwhile, he believes his first manuscript, "The History of Love," has perished in a flood. It hasn't. It's been published in another language and under another name. His second manuscript has a similar fate and it's amazing that author Nicole Krauss enables this plot twist to both break your heart and make it burst with joy and fulfillment at the same time.
"The History of Love" inspires the naming of the other main character and narrator, Alma Singer, who at the tender age of 14, takes us on her journey to find not only the author, but also the person requesting her mother's translation, and also the real life Alma. She's primarily concerned with making her widowed mother happy, but also becomes wrapped up in the mystery that is The History of Love. Through Alma and her innocent yet forthright drive, everything ties together.
This is one of the best books I've read in a very long time for the exquisite writing, the unique characters, and the creative plot. My highest recommendation.
Michele Cozzens is the author of It's Not Your Mother's Bridge Club.
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