The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

EXCELLENT characterisation is one of the major strengths of this touching, eloquent book. Krauss uses distinctive and contrasting linguistic styles to conjure up the characters of lonely Polish immigrant Leo Gursky and determined, lively 14-year-old Alma

EXCELLENT characterisation is one of the major strengths of this touching, eloquent book.

Krauss uses distinctive and contrasting linguistic styles to conjure up the characters of lonely Polish immigrant Leo Gursky and determined, lively 14-year-old Alma Singer.

Leo, who is living out his last years in New York, is hesitant, thoughtful and controlled.

He fell in love as a child and wrote a book in honour of his love, and now exists dreaming of both the girl and his book, which he assumes is lost.

Impatient Alma, who is trying to find a cure for her mother's loneliness, tells her tale in short sharp bursts neatly organised under numbered headings.

After she stumbles across a book that changed her mother's life and goes in search of the author, soon the two characters' worlds collide.

Thanks to Ottakar's of Stevenage

3/5