Jonathan Safran Foer

Johnathan Safran Foer is a newer author, only having written two novels so far. Everything is Illuminated (2002) and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005) feature remarkable characters, multi-generational Jewish families, experimental writing styles, and situations that are tragic, yet somehow also hilariously funny.
While waiting for Foer’s next book, why not give these authors a try?

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Chabon, Michael - The Yiddish Policemen's Union
In an alternate history in which Alaska rather than Israel became the homeland of the Jews after World War II, Detective Meyer Landsman investigates the murder of a heroin addict/chess player while the Jews’ borrowed time in Alaska is running out. A funny and versatile story steeped in the frame of Jewish culture.

Cunningham, Michael - Specimen Days
Walt Whitman is the muse for three interrelated novellas set in New York City during three different periods: the 1920s, the post-9/11 present, and 150 years in the future. An original and imaginative writing style, well-developed characters, and a thought-provoking three-part story line from the author who wrote The Hours.

Eggers, Dave - A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
The line between fact and fiction blurs as Eggers takes inventive liberties with the memoir form. He relates his parents’ deaths to cancer and his adventures in California (including a stint on The Real World and caring for an eight-year-old brother) in the aftermath. Similar to Foer’s family-centered, tragicomic story lines.

Grass, Gunter - The Tin Drum
Now in a mental hospital, Oskar Matzerath, a dwarf living in Danzig, Poland during and after the Nazi era, recounts his incredible and absurd life story through a magical realistic story line. Readers will recognize many parallels between this Oskar and the young Oskar Schell of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Haddon, Mark - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Christopher, a 15-year old boy with a mild form of Autism, has his own mathematical way of solving the crime of his neighbor’s dog’s murder. Narrated from Christopher’s perspective, the writing style is truly unique, providing a fascinating character study.

Krauss, Nichole - The History of Love
Sixty years ago, Polish war refugee Leo Gursky wrote The History of Love but then lost it, along with Alma, the woman he loved. Unbeknownst to him, the book is still very much still alive and ties him to another Alma. Krauss, who is Foer’s wife, weaves together multiple plotlines to explore the effects of loss in her characters’ lives.

Kundera, Milan - The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Being a human is both gravely serious and unbearably meaningless. Kundera muses on this and more in the philosophical, deliberately-paced, and elegantly-written tale of Tomas and his wife Teresa as they cope with love, sex, politics, and jealously in post-Soviet-invasion Czechoslovakia.

Lewyeka, Marina - A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
Rest assured: It’s not all about tractors. Estranged sisters Vera and Nadezhda unite to end the marriage between their father and a much younger woman. A cross-cultural family story with both light humor and serious sorrow, as the sisters uncover their family’s history in Ukraine and Germany during World War II.

Newman, Sandra - The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done
Siblings Chrysalis and Eddie run a sham Buddhist retreat in California, meanwhile discovering the history of their father who was possibly a CIA agent when he adopted Chrysalis in South America. For those who like strange characters in peculiar situations, experimental formats (business reports, anyone?), and elements of mystery.

Roy, Arundhati - The God of Small Things
The mysterious drowning of a young cousin greatly impacts the lives of Rahel and her twin brother Estha in 1960s India. A story of social caste and politics, with vivid characters and dazzling imagery.

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Submitted by Isabel Planton, S524: Readers Advisory for Adults course in the School of Library and Information Science at Indiana University.