The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

My latest read is probably one of the best books I've read since I first read To Kill a Mockingbird.  It's one of those novels that I know I'll have to re-read in the future because I know the second (third, fourth etc.) time around is going to open even more doors than the first read did. 

A synopsis:  The History of Love covers a period of over 60 years and flips back and forth between Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe to present day New York City. There are several characters that the novel follows but at the center is Leo Gursky a retired locksmith who immigrated to New York after escaping Nazi soldiers in his native Poland.  He's spent the last part of his life in the belief that no one will notice when he dies. In addition to Leo, the reader follows 14 year-old Alma Singer who is stuck walking in circles as she struggles to keep fresh in her mind, the memory of her dead father.  This while at the same time, trying to find a way to lift her mother out of the depression her husband's death has left her in. In the midst of getting to know these tortured individuals, the connection between Leo and Alma is slowly revealed and what follows is a race to the end of the novel that literally reveals how love can lead people to the strangest of places and that which we think is gone, never truly disappears. 

Oh my!  When I finished this novel, first of all I was bawling.  Not out of sadness - well a little out of sadness - but mostly for joy.  I guess there certainly is some sadness in joy and some joy in sadness.  I put the book down and then picked it right back up and read the last page again.  And again.  And I thought to myself, "I can't wait to read this again in a couple years."  It's really an indescribable book but it is all about love; the definition of love and how love can take so many different forms.  How people suffer from the loss of love.  How people suffer and yet grow from first love.  How a love you thought was lost and gone forever can somehow reveal itself and give you a burst of life.  How secret love can give one such a feeling of hope while at the same time make you feel completely hopeless. In the end, however, the definition of love reveals itself to be the same for everyone:  All-consuming and breath-taking leaving you speechless but grateful that in some way you got to experience love in all it's joyous and horrid forms.