'The History of Love' by Nicole Krauss

Afterthoughts

A genre of its kind to unravel the mystery of a long lost love sealed in a brown paper bag of manuscripts that lives, gets lost, is found and then drifts through decades. Served in light-hearted language, peppered with its namesake, love, the prose gives this tingling feeling of thrill as the characters try hard to piece up the jigsaw of their relationships and amend their past through the History of Love.

The title could be deemed as passe but its content is no trash. I like it for its simple yet complex portray of its ordinary characters. No matter how The History of Love undergoes the ages, the changes of names & places, it lives through and stays true to its root. Love.

My rating for this book: ***1/2
Award Mention: British Book Award 2006 (Richard & Judy's Book Club); Orange Prize for Fiction Shortlist 2006

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The Reason to Quote

'I was named after every girl in a book called The History of Love.'(Alma)

and many other interesting ones I can't name offhand.

Nicole Krauss, The History of Love

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Resources

Award Mention
www.orangeprize.co.uk/opf/shortlist.php4?bookid=190

Available in NLB libraries, SP library, and major bookstores