Everything is Illuminated - Softcover
FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Follows a young writer on his travels through eastern Europe in search of the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis.
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Review:
The simplest thing would be to describe Everything Is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer's accomplished debut, as a novel about the Holocaust. It is, but that really fails to do justice to the sheer ambition of this book. The main story is a grimly familiar one. A young Jewish American--who just happens to be called Jonathan Safran Foer--travels to the Ukraine in the hope of finding the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. He is aided in his search by Alex Perchov, a naïve Ukrainian translator, Alex's grandfather (also called Alex), and a flatulent mongrel dog named Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. On their journey through Eastern Europe's obliterated landscape they unearth facts about the Nazi atrocities and the extent of Ukrainian complicity that have implications for Perchov as well as Safran Foer. This narrative is not, however, recounted from (the character) Jonathan Safran Foer's perspective. It is relayed through a series of letters that Alex sends to Foer. These are written in the kind of broken Russo-English normally reserved for Bond villains or Latka from Taxi. Interspersed between these letters are fragments of a novel by Safran Foer--a wonderfully imagined, almost magical realist, account of life in the shtetl before the Nazis destroyed it. These are in turn commented on by Alex, creating an additional metafictional angle to the tale.
Book Description:
If all this sounds a little daunting, don't be put off; Safran Foer is an extremely funny as well as intelligent writer who combines some of the best Jewish folk yarns since Isaac Bashevis Singer with a quite heartbreaking meditation on love, friendship, and loss. --Travis Elborough, Amazon.co.uk
Harper Perennial paperback, 2003Previous ISBN 978-0060529703
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- PublisherPenguin Books
- Publication date2008
- ISBN 10 0141037326
- ISBN 13 9780141037325
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages288
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Everything is Illuminated (Paperback)
Published by
Penguin Books Ltd, London
(2008)
ISBN 10: 0141037326
ISBN 13: 9780141037325
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Everything is Illuminated won the Guardian First Book Award in 2002. It tells the story of a young man who goes to Ukraine in search of the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. He is aided in his quest by a blind old man, a randy guide dog and a very, very bad translator. A young man arrives in the Ukraine, clutching in his hand a tattered photograph. He is searching for the woman who fifty years ago saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Unfortunately, he is aided in his quest by Alex, a translator with an uncanny ability to mangle English into bizarre new forms. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780141037325
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Everything is Illuminated (Paperback)
Published by
Penguin Books Ltd, London
(2008)
ISBN 10: 0141037326
ISBN 13: 9780141037325
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Paperback
Quantity: 1
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Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Everything is Illuminated won the Guardian First Book Award in 2002. It tells the story of a young man who goes to Ukraine in search of the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. He is aided in his quest by a blind old man, a randy guide dog and a very, very bad translator. A young man arrives in the Ukraine, clutching in his hand a tattered photograph. He is searching for the woman who fifty years ago saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Unfortunately, he is aided in his quest by Alex, a translator with an uncanny ability to mangle English into bizarre new forms. Shipping may be from our Sydney, NSW warehouse or from our UK or US warehouse, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780141037325
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Everything is Illuminated (Paperback)
Published by
Penguin Books Ltd, London
(2008)
ISBN 10: 0141037326
ISBN 13: 9780141037325
New
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Everything is Illuminated won the Guardian First Book Award in 2002. It tells the story of a young man who goes to Ukraine in search of the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. He is aided in his quest by a blind old man, a randy guide dog and a very, very bad translator. A young man arrives in the Ukraine, clutching in his hand a tattered photograph. He is searching for the woman who fifty years ago saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Unfortunately, he is aided in his quest by Alex, a translator with an uncanny ability to mangle English into bizarre new forms. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780141037325
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