Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Fiction	4-week checkout	Canceled Transit
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Foer, Jonathan	4-week checkout	Due 05-18-2024
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Foer, Jonathan Safran	4-week checkout	Due 04-29-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Foer, Jonathan Safran	4-week checkout	Due 04-27-2024

A new novel by the author of Everything Is Illuminated introduces Oskar Schell, the nine-year-old son of a man killed in the World Trade Center bombing who searches the city for a lock that fits a black key his father left behind. Jonathan Safran Foer emerged as one of the most original writers of his generation with his best-selling debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated. Now, with humor, tenderness, and awe, he confronts the traumas of our recent history. What he discovers is solace in that most human quality, imagination. Meet Oskar Schell, an inventor, Francophile, tambourine player, Shakespearean actor, jeweler, pacifist, correspondent with Stephen Hawking and Ringo Starr. He is nine years old. And he is on an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York. His mission is to find the lock that fits a mysterious key belonging to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11. An inspired innocent, Oskar is alternately endearing, exasperating, and hilarious as he careens from Central Park to Coney Island to Harlem on his search. Along the way he is always dreaming up inventions to keep those he loves safe from harm. What about a birdseed shirt to let you fly away? What if you could actually hear everyone's heartbeat? His goal is hopeful, but the past speaks a loud warning in stories of those who've lost loved ones before. As Oskar roams New York, he encounters a motley assortment of humanity who are all survivors in their own way. He befriends a 103-year-old war reporter, a tour guide who never leaves the Empire State Building, and lovers enraptured or scorned. Ultimately, Oskar ends his journey where it began, at his father's grave. But now he is accompanied by the silent stranger who has been renting the spare room of his grandmother's apartment. They are there to dig up his father's empty coffin.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Library Journal Review
School Library Journal Review
Booklist Review
Publishers Weekly Review
Summary / Annotation
Fiction Profile
Excerpt
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Very moving submitted by dimuziom on July 20, 2013, 8:38am This book was remarkably well written, emotionally charged, but not sappy or melodramatic.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close submitted by leighsprauer on August 27, 2013, 6:54am Although this was a neat idea, I was disappointed by the loose ends. I feel like the author just gave up before he thought the plot line through. It was a quick read, and moving, but not what I would call a really good book.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close submitted by a2sue on July 23, 2017, 11:49pm Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close was depressing, to say the least...

Heartwarming and heartbreaking submitted by lgoff on August 1, 2020, 11:54am This book is absolutely gorgeous. Reading it truly out my life into perspective and was a great reminder of how precious our time is and the importance of holding our loved ones close. While I read it early in high school, this book should be enjoyed by teens and adults alike.