The History Of Love: A Novel

Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2006 and winner of the 2006 Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger for Roman, The History Of Love explores the lasting power of the written word and the lasting power of love. "Wonderfully affecting... brilliant, touching and remarkably poised." - Sunday Telegraph Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer is trying to find a cure for her mother's loneliness. Believing she might discover it in an old book her mother is lovingly translating, she sets out in search of its author. Across New York, an old man called Leo Gursky is trying to survive a little bit longer. He spends his days dreaming of the love lost sixty years ago in Poland that inspired him to write a book. And although he doesn't know it yet, that book also survived: crossing oceans and generations and changing lives... "A tender tribute to human valiance. Who could be unmoved by a cast of characters whose daily battles are etched on our mind in such diamond-cut prose?" - Independent on Sunday "Devastating... one of the most passionate vindications of the written word in recent fiction. It takes one's breath away." - Spectator

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.” —New York Times

“At least as heartbreaking as it is hilarious.” —Washington Post

“Krauss writers like an angel.” —Guardian

“One of the most passionate vindications of the written word in recent fiction. It takes one’s breath away.” —Spectator

“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.” —Miami Herald

Nicole Krauss has been hailed by the New York Times as “one of America’s most important novelists.” She is the author of the international bestseller Great House, a finalist for the National Book Award, and Man Walks Into a Room. Her books have been translated into more than thirty-five languages.

Leo Gursky, cerrajero polaco jubilado en Nueva York, recibe misteriosamente el manuscrito de un texto que creía perdido acompañado de una enigmática carta. Instalado en el ocaso de su vida, esta sorpresa lo lleva a bucear en los recuerdos de su lejana juventud, recuperando emociones que suponía enterradas. No muy lejos de allí, la quinceañera Alma Singer padece los dilemas y conflictos de su edad. Hace ya ocho años que su padre murió de cáncer y ella ha decidido que es hora de que su madre deje de estar triste, o sea, se dispone a encontrarle un nuevo marido. Cuando en su camino aparece "La historia del amor", una novela rara, escrita en yidis, publicada en español y comprada por su padre en una librería de Buenos Aires, los interrogantes se suceden. ¿Por qué su padre se la regaló a su madre muy poco después de conocerla? ¿Quién era su autor? ¿Y quién es el misterioso hombre que ha encargado a su madre que traduzca el libro al inglés? Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer is trying to find a cure for her mother's loneliness. Believing she might discover it in an old book her mother is lovingly translating, she sets out in search of its author. Across New York an old man called Leo Gursky is trying to survive a little bit longer. He spends his days dreaming of the lost love who, sixty years ago in Poland, inspired him to write a book. And although he doesn't know it yet, that book also survived: crossing oceans and generations, and changing lives... An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27689781-the-history-of-love) here Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer is trying to find a cure for her mother's loneliness. Believing that she might discover it in an old book her mother is lovingly translating, she sets out in search of its author. Across New York an old man named Leo Gursky is trying to survive a little bit longer. He spends his days dreaming of the lost love who, sixty years ago in Poland, inspired him to write a book. And although he doesn't know it yet, that book also survived: crossing oceans and generations, and changing lives. Sixty years after a book's publication, its author remembers his lost love and missing son, while a teenage girl named for one of the book's characters seeks her namesake, as well as a cure for her widowed mother's loneliness