The History of Love

A Novel

Nicole Krauss (Author)

Overview | Formats | Inside the Book

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.

New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing
Winner of the Borders Original Voices Award
Finalist for the Orange Prize
#1 Booksense Pick
Winner of the Edward Lewis Wallant Award
Winner of France’s Prix du Meilleur Livre Ėtranger Award

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).

Book Details

Paperback
May 2006
ISBN 978-0-393-32862-2
5.6 × 8.3 in / 272 pages
Territory Rights: Worldwide including Canada, but excluding the British Commonwealth.

Other Formats

The History of Love: A Novel

Hardcover

Awards

Endorsements & Reviews

“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

“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