Nicole Krauss: The History of Love

Sad. Things never quite work out for the characters of this story, who are steeped in the sadness of holocaust survivors. There are two main characters, an old man and a young girl, whose stories run in rough parallel to each other, only meeting at the very end, when it’s really too late. Not an optimistic work, not the usual happy ending. The description of the lonely life of an elderly holocaust survivor, living alone in NYC, is intensely moving; however, I found that the story pushed and stretched the boundaries of reality with an intricately constructed plot that was maybe just a bit too clever.