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Content snapshot
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Violence
Barely any
No graphic violence; wartime loss in backstory
Language
Barely any
Mild language
Sexual Content
Barely any
Brief romantic references
Substance Use
None
No substance use
Emotional Intensity
A lot
Holocaust loss, decades of loneliness, and the grief of a life shaped by what didn't happen; emotionally heavy
What this book is about
Leo Gursky, an elderly Polish-Jewish survivor living alone in New York, wrote a book long ago for the woman he loved before the war. Alma Singer, a teenage girl named after a character in that book, searches for the man who can explain everything. Krauss's lyrical, structurally inventive novel is about love that persists across loss, the power of stories to keep people alive, and the miraculous ways lives brush against each other without our knowledge.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Holocaust loss and survivor's grief
Themes of death and profound isolation
Emotionally demanding throughout
Reader Verification
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