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Everything Is Illuminated

By Jonathan Safran Foer

(392)

| Audio CD | 9781419326769

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Book Description

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 Continue

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. Lit by passion, fear, guilt, memory, and hope, the characters in Everything Is Illuminated mine the black holes of history. As the search moves back in time, the fantastical history moves forward, until reality collides with fiction in a heart-stopping scene of extraordinary power. An arresting blend of high comedy and great tragedy, this is a story about searching for people and places that no longer exist, for the hidden truths that haunt every family, and for the delicate but necessary tales that link past and future. Exuberant and wise, hysterically funny and deeply moving, EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED is an astonishing debut.

Critics

  • Guile by the mile

    Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer 276pp, Hamish Hamilton, £14.99 Perhaps because they saw Bambi at an impressionable age, those in the generation of American artists born since the late 1960s are marked by a terror of sentimentality. ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

  • Everything is Illuminated

    A 20-year-old Jewish American, Jonathan Safran Foer, goes in search of his roots in the Ukraine and is accompanied by his translator, Alex (also 20), and Alex's grandfather. The result is an absorbing story, hilarious and heartbreaking. Foer sets out ... (read full critics)

    bookgroup published on Tue, 14 Sep 2010

25 Reviews

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  • 10 people find this helpful

    Definitely one of the books of my life.
    It spoke to me, linking everything to everything else, inside and outside, with white strings made of words, with words made of feelings, with feelings made of everywaves, linking each nowhere to everywhere inside and outside.

    Is this helpful?

    Zu said on Jul 21, 2008 about the Hardcover edition | 5 feedbacks

  • 5 people find this helpful

    Try to live so that you can always tell the truth

    Sono ancora frastornata dalle emozioni che mi ha dato questo libro. Non trovo le parole.

    Is this helpful?

    Vetsera said on May 6, 2009 about the Paperback edition | 1 feedback

  • 4 people find this helpful

    as Alex would put it: "very premium". Jonathan, his translator Alex, Alex's grandfather (who claims he is blind but is the driver) and his allegedly disturbed seeing-eye bitch undertake an amazing journey through Ukraine to find the village of Trachimbrod.
    chasing Augustine, the past meets the ... (continue)

    as Alex would put it: "very premium". Jonathan, his translator Alex, Alex's grandfather (who claims he is blind but is the driver) and his allegedly disturbed seeing-eye bitch undertake an amazing journey through Ukraine to find the village of Trachimbrod.
    chasing Augustine, the past meets the present and modern English meets Alex. nothing will ever be the same...and everything is illuminated.
    unputdownable.

    Is this helpful?

    disastrino said on Oct 29, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • 2 people find this helpful

    Everything is the way it is because everything was the way it was.

    Memory: It is an ugly thing.
    One can't help digging for one's past, but memories hurt and uncover oneself more than one can ever imagine.
    The past is the present is the future is the past... That's what this book is made of ... (continue)

    Everything is the way it is because everything was the way it was.

    Memory: It is an ugly thing.
    One can't help digging for one's past, but memories hurt and uncover oneself more than one can ever imagine.
    The past is the present is the future is the past... That's what this book is made of.

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    Chiara L'Onironauta said on Dec 16, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • Very evocative

    I guess it's one of those book you love or hate because in the end it doesn't boil down to anything and it tells it all.

    I loved it.

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    fran_ces said on Aug 26, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • Alex's story is a bit interesting. But the letters and the other plots are boring. I can't help abandoning the book afte 30+ pages.

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    Waleswong said on Apr 11, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Book Details

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ISBN Edition List Sale Seller
9781419326769 Audio CD $29.99 $25.64 bn.com
$29.99 $25.06 The Book Depository
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