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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Written by: Jonathan Safran Foer
Narrated by: Jeff Woodman, Barbara Caruso, Richard Ferrone
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About this listen

 Jonathan Safran Foer's best-selling debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated, wowed critics on its way to winning several literary prizes, including Book of the Year honors from the Los Angeles Times. It has been published in 24 countries and will soon be a major motion picture. Foer's talent continues to shine in this sometimes hilarious and always heartfelt follow-up.

Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is a precocious Francophile who idolizes Stephen Hawking and plays the tambourine extremely well. He's also a boy struggling to come to terms with his father's death in the World Trade Center attacks. As he searches New York City for the lock that fits a mysterious key his father left behind, Oskar discovers much more than he could have imagined.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a masterfully imagined novel from an author Time hails as "a certified wunderkind".

 Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Witty Heartfelt

What the critics say

  • 2005 Audie Award Nominee, Multi-Voiced Performance

"Piercing and so funny." (The Bookseller)
"[Oskar's] first-person narration of his journey is arrestingly beautiful, and readers won't soon forget him." (Booklist)
"Jonathan Safran Foer's second novel is everything one hoped it would be: ambitious, pyrotechnic, riddling, and above all...extremely moving. An exceptional achievement." (Salman Rushdie)
"Brilliant....Unafraid to show his traumatized characters' constant groping for emotional catharsis, Foer demonstrates once again that he is one of the few contemporary writers willing to risk sentimentalism in order to address great questions of truth, love, and beauty." (Publishers Weekly)
All stars
Most Relevant
I do not have enough tags to assign to this book. Rather, I would not know how to label them. It's about grief more than anything, but also about the inability to share that grief, and the unwillingness to heal. Oskar and his paternal grandparents suffer imaginable losses in their lives, and deal with them in unique ways.

I only discovered by looking for more information that the novel has graphic elements, which I missed by reading the audiobook.

Dealing with loss

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I did find this book a little difficult to get into but I am sure glad I persevered. Beautifully written, fantastic story, it will stay with me. I definitely recommend! The narrator's were excellent too! Really great performances.

Excellent book! Talented author and narrator's.

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Beautiful narration.
My second overall re-read of this book. The physical book has a lot of art throughout it, so I was curious to see how this would be translated into audio and I think they did a really great job

Favourite book

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The storyline, narration, everything is amazing. I love the characters so much. Every single one. Well, maybe I don’t *love* the grandpa, but he was necessary.

A Very Good Book

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Beautifully woven storylines with excellent imagery and some memorable wording. I really, really enjoyed this book. The characters are well developed, and the story full.

Definitely recommend

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