Thursday morning's meeting of the Contemporary Fiction book group will feature a discussion on Nicole Krauss' The History of Love. For all of its intricacies, the brilliance of this novel is in the simplicity of the emotions that are evoked.
80-year-old Leo Gursky lives on Manhattan's Delancey Street and spends his days trying to get people to notice his existence, knocking over store displays, modeling nude; 14-year-old Alma is searching for her namesake, a character in a book, The History of Love, which Leo wrote decades ago, for his own love, while still in Poland. The layers, the stories, the bittersweet comedic scenes are woven together in a complex, rich tapestry that will, yes, elicit laughter and tears.
Granta, the highly esteemed literary magazine has just named Krauss as one of America's Top Young Novelists, along with her husband, Jonathan Safran Foer.