The history of love

In a novel "as heartbreaking as it is hilarious" a man searching for his son, and a girl seeking help for her widowed mother are linked by a long-lost book ( Washington Post ). 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" ( Newsday). "Vertiginously exciting…this novel is tightly packed with ingenious asides…Even at their most oddball, these flourishes reflect the deep, surprising wisdom that gives this novel its ultimate heft." - Janet Maslin, New York Times "Krauss writes like an angel." -- The Guardian "One of the most passionate vindications of the written word in recent fiction. It takes one's breath away." -- Spectator "It's the sort of book that makes life bearable after all." - Miami Herald "A significant novel, genuinely one of the year's best. Emotionally wrenching yet intellectually rigorous, idea-driven but with indelible characters and true suspense." -- New York "Big, bold, twist-your-heart sad, kick-your-heels joyful—Nicole Krauss's brilliant novel is as deep and multifaceted as love itself." - Marie Claire "It restores your faith in fiction. It restores all sorts of faith." - Ali Smith, award-winning author of Summer