Here I Am - Softcover

Jonathan Safran Foer

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241146186 ISBN 13: 9780241146187

Publisher: Penguin Books Limited (UK), 2016

Synopsis

In the book of Genesis, when God calls out, "Abraham!" before ordering him to sacrifice his son, Isaac, Abraham responds, "Here I am." Later, when Isaac calls out, "My father!" before asking him why there is no animal to slaughter, Abraham responds, "Here I am."How do we fulfill our conflicting duties as father, husband, and son; wife and mother; child and adult? Jew and American? How can we claim our own identities, when our lives are linked so closely to others'? These are the questions at the heart of Jonathan Safran Foer's first novel in eleven years - a work of extraordinary scope and heartbreaking intimacy.Unfolding over four tumultuous weeks in present-day Washington, D.C., "Here I Am" is the story of a fracturing family in a moment of crisis. As Jacob and Julia Bloch and their three sons are forced to confront the distances between the lives they think they want and the lives they are living, a catastrophic earthquake sets in motion a quickly escalating conflict in the Middle East. At stake is the meaning of home, and the fundamental question of how much aliveness one can bear.Showcasing the same high-energy inventiveness, hilarious irreverence, and emotional urgency that readers loved in his earlier work, "Here I Am" is Foer's most searching, hard-hitting, and grandly entertaining novel yet. It not only confirms Foer's stature as a dazzling literary talent but reveals a novelist who has fully come into his own as one of our most important writers.

About this title

Review

An Amazon Best Book of September 2016: Jonathan Safran Foer is back (after eleven years) and may be better than ever. While Everything Is Illuminated remains one of my favorite books, Here I Am will also be added to the list. Classic JSF with a powerfully personal touch, this novel will make you laugh, challenge your perceptions, and truly just impress. Here I Am follows an already fragile family in crisis, and examines how they approach their fractured marriage through their religious identity as Jewish Americans and Israelis, as well as how each individual within a relationship takes on specific roles, and why. Fans of JSF get ready to swoon, and to those who aren't fans yet--get ready to become one. --Penny Mann, The Amazon Book Review

About the Author

Jonathan Safran Foer is the author of Everything Is Illuminated, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Eating Animals and Here I Am. He has also edited a new modern edition of the sacred Jewish Haggadah. Everything Is Illuminated won several literary prizes, including the National Jewish Book Award and the Guardian First Book Award. He edited the anthology A Convergence of Birds: Original Fiction and Poetry Inspired by the Work of Joseph Cornell, and his stories have been published in the Paris Review, Conjunctions and the New Yorker. Jonathan Safran Foer teaches Creative Writing at New York University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Books Limited (UK)
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0241146186
• ISBN 13: 9780241146187
• Binding: Paperback