Nicole Krauss, author of Great House
Nicole Krauss, author of The History of Love, is back with Great House, a powerful, soaring novel about a stolen desk that contains the secrets, and becomes the obsession, of the lives it passes through. For twenty-five years, a reclusive American novelist has been writing at the desk she inherited from a young Chilean poet who disappeared at the hands of Pinochet’s secret police; one day a girl claiming to be the poet’s daughter arrives to take it away, sending the writer’s life reeling. Across the ocean, in the leafy suburbs of London, a man caring for his dying wife discovers, among her papers, a lock of hair that unravels a terrible secret. In Jerusalem, an antiques dealer slowly reassembles his father’s study, plundered by the Nazis in Budapest in 1944.
Connecting these stories is a desk of many drawers that exerts a power over those who possess it or have given it away. As the narrators of Great House make their confessions, the desk takes on more and more meaning, and comes finally to stand for all that has been taken from them, and all that binds them to what has disappeared. Great House is a story haunted by questions: What do we pass on to our children and how do they absorb our dreams and losses? How do we respond to disappearance, destruction, and change? Nicole Krauss has written a soaring, powerful novel about memory struggling to create a meaningful permanence in the face of inevitable loss.
In honor of Boswell Book Company’s 18th month in business, Carol Grossmeyer, President of Dickens Books, Ltd, the parent company of the former Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops and current 800-CEO-READ, will introduce Ms. Krauss. We’re grateful for her help in launching the business and honoring our continuing friendship. Author bio: Nicole Krauss is the author of Man Walks into a Room, Great House and the international bestseller The History of Love. Her books have been translated into more than thirty-five languages. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
2 comments:
Can't wait to read this one! Desks are so interesting, especially those that are passed along from one person to another... What a great concept for a book. My husband has an antique from Boston with hidden drawers and spaces that are so interesting.
Deb/Bookish Dame
Hi Deb! I apologize for the delay in my response to your comment. I'm having issues with the comment notification. :-/ Working on it, though!
I agree that it's a great concept for a book. I long for the days where furniture was passed down throughout families rather than being so disposable. I bet your husband's desk is gorgeous! When you read this book, you will look at the desk in a whole new way! ;-)
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