Great House Nicole Krauss

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2011 Nicole Krauss's Great House is a haunting story that explores loss and memory.

In New York a woman spends the night with a young Chilean poet before he departs leaving her at his desk. Later he is arrested by Pinochet's secret police. . . In north London a man caring for his dying wife discovers a lock of hair that unravels a terrible secret. . . In Jerusalem an antiques dealer reassembles his father's study plundered by Nazis. One item remains missing. . .

Spanning continents and decades weaving an intricate web of its characters' lives Great House tells a soaring story of love loss and survival against the odds.

' The History of Love was very good indeed. Great House ...is even better. A heartbreaking meditation on loss and memory and how they construct our lives' Guardian

'Full of mystery and suspense building towards one og th great climaxes in contemporary fiction. It is hard to imagine a better book of fiction being published this year...one of the finest writers of our time' Jewish Chronicle

'Bewitching mysterious and deeply moving. One of 2011's must-reads' Harper's Bazaar

Nicole Krauss is an American bestselling author who has received international critical acclaim for her first three novels: Great House The History of Love (Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2006 and winner of the 2006 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger) and Man Walks into a Room (shortlisted for the LA Times Book Award) all of which are available in Penguin paperback.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

An ominous writing desk is pivotal to the lives of the narrators of this chronicle, whose relationships are obscured like puzzle pieces defying placement until studied from every angle. The multiple narrators' performances are powerful and are true to the ethnicity of their respective characters. Krauss's (nicolekrauss.com) languid third novel, a haunted mystery brimming with lyrical details, is a National Book Award fiction finalist; her previous novel, The History of Love (2005)-also available from Recorded Books-won the William Saroyan International Prize. Essential. ["An intense and memorable reading experience," read the review of the New York Times best-selling Norton hc, LJ 8/10.-Ed.]-Judith Robinson, Dept. of Lib. & Information Studies, Univ. at Buffalo (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

A writing desk serves as Krauss's literary device to connect five striking vignettes. So, too, are the characters emotionally linked through lives that involve writing and reading, love overshadowed by loss, and connection outweighed by isolation. The book is narrated at a stately pace-which will be appreciated by the serious listener who might wish to stop the audio to write down a line or two-by Robert Ian MacKenzie (narrator of McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street series) who demonstrates that he can do wonders with material he can sink his teeth into. His performance as a British professor married to a reclusive writer is a marvel, and Alma Cuervo's evocation of a lonely author haunted by her relationship to a previous owner of the desk is affecting and nuanced. Listeners who enjoy lingering over a top-notch novel will be intellectually nourished by this audio. A Norton hardcover. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.