Everything Is IlluminatedNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. Jonathan Safran Foer's debut—"a funny, moving...deeply felt novel about the dangers of confronting the past and the redemption that comes with laughing at it, even when that seems all but impossible." (Time) With only a yellowing photograph in hand, a young man—also named Jonathan Safran Foer—sets out to find the woman who might or might not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of the war, an amorous dog named Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior, and the unforgettable Alex, a young Ukrainian translator who speaks in a sublimely butchered English, Jonathan is led on a quixotic journey over a devastated landscape and into an unexpected past. As their adventure unfolds, Jonathan imagines the history of his grandfather’s village, conjuring a magical fable of startling symmetries that unite generations across time. As his search moves back in time, the fantastical history moves forward, until reality collides with fiction in a heart-stopping scene of extraordinary power. “Imagine a novel as verbally cunning as A Clockwork Orange, as harrowing as The Painted Bird, as exuberant and twee as Candide, and you have Everything Is Illuminated . . . Read it, and you'll feel altered, chastened—seared in the fire of something new.” — Washington Post “A rambunctious tour de force of inventive and intelligent storytelling . . . Foer can place his reader’s hand on the heart of human experience, the transcendent beauty of human connections. Read, you can feel the life beating.” — Philadelphia Inquirer |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - petervanbeveren - LibraryThing'An astonishing feat' - "The Times". A young man arrives in the Ukraine, clutching in his hand a tattered photograph. He is searching for the woman who fifty years ago saved his grandfather from the ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - Castlelass - LibraryThingI have previously read and liked a book by this author, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. So, I decided to try another. It did not go well. There are two stories here. One involves the main ... Read full review
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Common terms and phrases
able America asked Augustine baby beautiful became become believe body Brod called close course dead death desire don’t door dream everything exist eyes face father feel felt finger floor front girl give Grandfather grandmother Gypsy hair hand happened happy hate head hear heard hero inquired It’s Jonathan Junior kill kiss knew Kolker laughed leave lips Little Igor live looked mean mother moved never night once Perhaps person photograph pointed possible pulled Rabbi reason remember returned Safran Sammy Davis shtetl side sleep someone speak story sure talk tell thing thought told Trachimbrod truth trying turned understand utter walk wife window witnessed woman writing writing...We are writing...We Yankel young
Popular passages
Page 19 - HOLY, HOLY, HOLY IS THE LORD OF HOSTS! THE WHOLE WORLD IS FILLED WITH HIS GLORY!
Page 3 - MY LEGAL NAME is Alexander Perchov. But all of my many friends dub me Alex, because that is a more flaccid-to-utter version of my legal name. Mother dubs me Alexi-stop-spleening-me!, because I am always spleening her. If you want to know why I am always spleening her, it is because I am always elsewhere with friends, and disseminating so much currency, and performing so many things that can spleen a mother. Father used to dub me Shapka, for the fur hat I would don even in the summer month. He ceased...
Page 6 - what was the language you studied this year at school?" "Do not dub me Shapka," I said. "Alex," he said, "what was the language you studied this year at school?" "The language of English," I told him. "Are you good and fine at it?
Page 34 - Shapka.) He did not appear like either the Americans I had witnessed in magazines, with yellow hairs and muscles, or the Jews from history books, with no hairs and prominent bones. He was wearing nor blue jeans nor the uniform. In truth, he did not look like anything special at all. I was underwhelmed to the maximum. He must have witnessed the sign I was holding, because he punched me on the shoulder and said, "Alex?
Page 34 - It would not be nice to beat you," he said. "What?" I said. "I said," he said, "it would not be nice to beat you." "Oh yes," I laughed, "it would not be nice to beat you also.
Page 21 - Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole world is filled with his glory (Isa 6:3).
Page 114 - Ukrainian sound so so similar, people who speak only Ukrainian sometimes hate people who speak a fusion of Russian and Ukrainian, because very often people who speak a fusion of Russian and Ukrainian...
Page 5 - My father toils for a travel agency here in Odessa. It is denominated Heritage Touring. It is for Jewish people, like the hero, who have cravings to leave that ennobled country America, and visit humble towns in Poland and Ukraine. My father's business scores a translator, guide, and driver for the Jews, who try to find places where their families once existed.
Bibliographic information
| Title | Everything Is Illuminated |
| Author | Jonathan Safran Foer |
| Edition | unabridged |
| Publisher | HarperCollins, 2013 |
| ISBN | 0547523785, 9780547523781 |
| Length | 288 pages |
| Subjects | › › › Fiction / Historical / 20th Century / World War II Fiction / Literary Fiction / Women |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |