The History of Love (2005) is a sublime tale about immigration, family and the cure to loneliness. Nicole Krauss deftly weaves quirky characters, past and present, into a surprisingly suspenseful mystery. I was sad to reach the end.
On the eve of the Nazi invasion, Leo Gursky flees to New York. The love of his life and the subject of his most recent book had gone to America years before, Meanwhile another Polish Jew émigré – this one to Chile – publishes his only book, The History of Love, in Spanish. Fast Forward to New York in present day. Leo is an old man with only one friend. Across town, a 14 year-old begins her search for a way to end her widowed mother’s loneliness. The key may be the mother’s recent commission to translate one of the last surviving copies of a Chilean book called The History of Love.
This is a story about loneliness. Krauss conveys the loneliness of the widow, of the fatherless children, of the immigrant whose country may be destroyed, of the lover lost and of the elderly. This story is about the connections these lonely people seek and ultimately it argues: maybe they just need each other. It is a beautiful weave.
The most pleasant surprise is the mystery at the heart of the novel. Krauss slowly reveals the clues and masterfully unveils the truth with still enough story to learn what the truth means to our characters. The mystery is not the whole story, just a part of it.
You will fall in love with the characters from The History of Love. From the youngster Bird to the elder Leo, each quirky character finds a way into your heart. The end comes too soon. You will want to know at least a little more about what happens to each one. That is a mark of great storytelling.
Link to The History of Love on Powells.com
Posted by Drevil, 7/12/2012
My mom is reading this now.