Pinterest tracking pixel
If you are having difficulty navigating this website please contact us at member.services@bookofthemonth.com or 1-877-236-8540.
Oops! The page didn’t load right. Please refresh and try again.
All booksLiterary fictionThe History of Love
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
Literary fiction

The History of Love

by Nicole Krauss

Quick take

What's love got to do with it? In this beautiful, continent-spanning novel, the answer just might be everything.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Icon_Emotional

    Emotional

  • Illustrated icon, Icon_Writerlife

    Writer's life

  • Illustrated icon, Icon_Immigration

    Immigration

  • Illustrated icon, Icon_Nyc

    NYC

Why I love it

Mayim Bialik
Oct. 2015

There are books that are wonderful and then there are books that change the way you look at books. The History of Love changed the way I look at books.

I got this book from one of my closest friends; a friend I met late in life but without whom I could not exist as the person I am today. There is a person in the world who understands me so intimately and so terribly well, and it is this person who gave me this book.

The History of Love works so incredibly well as a piece of literary artistry because it taps into some of the greatest tension we as readers can experience, and it makes us fall in love. Krauss creates a character in Leo Gursky who we need to understand and who is so very hard to understand. That tension between what we know and what we want to know keeps us riveted. And she creates in Alma a character so in need of being understood, and yet so beyond understanding that the tension is magnified. It is this dual tension that fuels the novel.

The story of a story unfolding is also what The History of Love is about. It is a search for an answer, and we not only go on the journey of the search but we are participants in watching the searcher search. It is the ultimate multi-dimensional novel in this sense: we watch a watcher watching. We struggle to watch a struggler struggling. We become a part of the novel without even realizing it. This book became a part of me as I read it and for a long time after.

Any novel that has twists and turns cannot really be written about; it needs to be experienced. The experience I had allowing this novel to unravel into a perfect pile of chaos and meaning was a transformative one as a reader and as a lover of literature. The process of watching a novel grow before your eyes as you turn the pages is spectacular.

The History of Love changed my life because of the way it made me believe. It made me believe in friendship all over again, and it made me believe in literature too. But mostly, this novel made me believe all over again in the promise of love.

Through history, we learn. The History of Love chronicles the way we learn to trust, to understand, and to love. In this way, we become a part of history.

Read less

Synopsis

Leo Gursky taps his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he’s still alive. But it wasn’t always like this: in the Polish village of his youth, he fell in love and wrote a book. . . . Sixty years later and half a world away, fourteen-year-old Alma, who was named after a character in that book, undertakes an adventure to find her namesake and save her family.

Read less

Member thoughts

All (1439)
All (1439)
Love (667)
Like (585)
Dislike (187)
1468 ratings
  • 45% Love
  • 40% Like
  • 13% Dislike
    Literary fiction
    • Transcendent Kingdom
    • Dominicana
    • What's Mine and Yours
    • Vladimir
    • Infinite Country
    • The Prophets
    • Normal People
    • True Biz
    • The Verifiers
    • Betty
    • Salvage the Bones
    • Ask Again, Yes
    • Black Buck
    • The History of Love
    • Luster
    • The Remains of the Day
    • The Secret History
    • The Kite Runner
    • Memorial
    • The Gifted School
    • The Death of Vivek Oji
    • Valentine
    • Leave the World Behind
    • The Knockout Queen
    • Yerba Buena
    • Free Food for Millionaires
    • A Burning
    • Writers & Lovers
    • The Mothers
    • The Water Dancer
    • Sing, Unburied, Sing
    • Small Country
    • The Sympathizer
    • Fleishman Is in Trouble
    • Lot
    • An American Marriage
    • The Animators
    • The Leavers
    • Swing Time
    • The Mars Room
    • Exit West
    • The Windfall
    • Goodbye, Vitamin
    • White Fur
    • Chemistry
    • Woman No. 17
    • The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
    • Eat Only When You're Hungry
    • Rainbirds
    • Unsheltered
    • A Ladder to the Sky
    • Golden Child
    • Lost and Wanted
    • The Goldfinch
    • Little Women
    • The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P
    • & Sons
    • The Association of Small Bombs
    • Lolly Willowes
    • All Grown Up
    • Marlena
    • The Light Pirate
    • Signal Fires
    • Someday, Maybe
    • The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
    • Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
    • Woman of Light
    • Mercury Pictures Presents
    • Marrying the Ketchups