The History of Love

 Book 40 of my 2023 Reading Challenge

read from April 27 - 30

The History of Love

by Nicole Krauss

Summary (via the book jacket)

Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer is trying to find a cure for her mother's loneliness. Believing that she might discover it in an old book her mother is lovingly translating, she sets out in search of its author. 

Across New York an old man named Leo Gursky is trying to survive a little longer. He spends his days dreaming of the lost love who, sixty years ago in Poland, inspired him to write a book. And although he doesn't know it yet, that book also survived: crossing oceans and generations, and changing lives...

My Opinion

4 stars

I'm giving the book 4 stars because there were lines that took my breath away.  I'm forgiving the unevenness (I didn't understand Bird's subplot) and the coincidences of everything coming together because of how much I loved the parts with Leo.

Even though I don't usually re-read books I would read this one again now that I know how everything works out.  I was in a hurry to find out how everyone was connected so I'm sure I missed some things.

A Few Quotes from the Book

"Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering."

"She looked different than I remembered her. And yet. The same. The eyes: that's how I knew her. I thought, So this is how they send the angel. Stalled at the age when she loved you most."