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The History of Love

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Le livre mélange trois types de narration: celui d'un vieil homme qui a échappé à l'Holocauste de la seconde guerre mondiale, qui sait qu'il va disparaitre, mais qui ne veut pas être invisible. Une adolescente qui tient un journal, et qui se met à chercher l'auteur du livre que sa mère est en train de traduire: THe History of Love. Des extraits de ce même livre, au style totalement différent des autres chapitres, et un biographie de l'auteur du livre. Petit à petit, avec beaucoup de douceur et de subtilités, les différents récits s'entremêlent pour ne former plus qu'un seul. Je ne savais pas en achetant ce livre que Nicole Krauss était la femme de Jonathan Safran Foer. Bien sûr, les deux auteurs ont deux styles très différents. Jonathan Safran Foer a sûrement crée un style narratif révolutionnaire mais le livre de Nicole Krauss marque par les liens qui se créent à l'insu des personnages. On retiendra aussi la beauté de la narration, et les différents styles créés avec beaucoup d'intelligence pour chaque personnage.

A story that evolves around a book. The story of three different lives that finally are connected. A great book!

Commande parfaite, merci ! Article arrivé dans les délais et en excellent état. CE LIVRE EST ABSOLUMENT MERVEILLEUX !! JE L'AI DEJA RELU PLUSIEURS FOIS ET JE L'OFFRE A TOUS MES PROCHES.

This is the brilliant, second novel of Nicole Krauss. When I finished, I started again, because this book is exceptional, because angels, locks, imagination and (in-)visibility play key roles: a literary thriller full of surprises and unexpected twists and turns, right up to the final pages.
The novel begins in Poland/Ukraine in the 1930s and ends around 2004 with Leo Gursky, lifelong in love with Alma. But she escaped in time to the US, carrying inside her proof of Leo's love for her. Leo barely survived WW II in Polish forests and cellars, eating unspeakable things, but ultimately finds his way to the US too, where he worked as a locksmith for 51 years. Early on he meets with Alma only once, which for Leo is life-defining: she is now married with two sons now. Ever since, Leo has followed his son Isaac discretely; he starts a newspaper archive when Isaac becomes a writer...
Early and very late in life Leo wrote a book. Both books were later plagiarised by people he trusted. During his love affair with Alma (and with her in mind) he wrote by hand a book called "The History of Love". He gave it, tightly wrapped in paper and with written instructions to Liv, a schoolmate who had the right papers to flee and ended up in Chile.
Towards the end of his lonely life and full of invading memories, Leo often creates small incidents to enhance a feeling of visibility as opposed to his WW II urge to remain invisible. And writes another book of 301 pages on an old typewriter in an apartment full of junk. It is a philosophical account of all his life and thoughts since his first book. He posts it to his son, who is not aware of Leo's existence as his father...
The second Alma also lives in New York, a bright girl of almost 15. She is worried about her kid brother who behaves as if he may be the next Messiah and about her widowed mother, who is translating a book about the history of love, first published in Spanish in Chile. The translation is commissioned not by a US publisher but by a mysterious, rich person. She embarks on an investigation of her own...
Enjoy the interaction between furious Leo and his old Polish schoolfriend Bruno, recently found on NY's streets. He becomes Leo's upstairs neighbour and daily checks in on Leo with fake requests for sugar, a brush, whatever. And follow young Alma, her mildly crazy brother and their sad mother.
This reviewer stops here. This book is fantastic. It also explains in some detail what real angels are capable of, and in which areas they are weak or incompetent. Always good to know, angels cannot swim.