A new novel by the author of Everything Is Illuminated introduces Oskar Schell, the nine-year-old son of a man killed in the World Trade Center bombing who searches the city for a lock that fits a black key his father left behind. Jonathan Safran Foer emerged as one of the most original writers of his generation with his best-selling debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated. Now, with humor, tenderness, and awe, he confronts the traumas of our recent history. What he discovers is solace in that most human quality, imagination. Meet Oskar Schell, an inventor, Francophile, tambourine player, Shakespearean actor, jeweler, pacifist, correspondent with Stephen Hawking and Ringo Starr. He is nine years old. And he is on an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York. His mission is to find the lock that fits a mysterious key belonging to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11. An inspired innocent, Oskar is alternately endearing, exasperating, and hilarious as he careens from Central Park to Coney Island to Harlem on his search. Along the way he is always dreaming up inventions to keep those he loves safe from harm. What about a birdseed shirt to let you fly away? What if you could actually hear everyone's heartbeat? His goal is hopeful, but the past speaks a loud warning in stories of those who've lost loved ones before. As Oskar roams New York, he encounters a motley assortment of humanity who are all survivors in their own way. He befriends a 103-year-old war reporter, a tour guide who never leaves the Empire State Building, and lovers enraptured or scorned. Ultimately, Oskar ends his journey where it began, at his father's grave. But now he is accompanied by the silent stranger who has been renting the spare room of his grandmother's apartment. They are there to dig up his father's empty coffin
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Contemporary American fiction was significantly shaped in the early 2000s by inventive narrative structures addressing historical trauma and personal grief, most prominently showcased in the award-winning novel Everything Is Illuminated. Author Jonathan Safran Foer emerged as a prominent voice in modern literature through his distinct blend of emotional sincerity and formal experimentation.
Born on February 21, 1977, in Washington, D.C., Jonathan Safran Foer established his career with his debut novel Everything Is Illuminated (2002), which received the Guardian First Book Prize, the National Jewish Book Award, and the New York Public Library Young Lions Prize, while also being named Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times. He followed this success with his second novel, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2005), which examines the aftermath of September 11 through the perspective of a young boy in New York City. Both novels were adapted into major motion pictures, with the film adaptation of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.
In addition to his fiction, which includes the 2016 novel Here I Am, Foer has published influential non-fiction works such as Eating Animals (2009), an investigation into the ethics of meat consumption, and We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast (2019), which addresses the impact of dietary choices on climate change. Recognized on early-career lists by The New Yorker, Esquire, and Rolling Stone, Foer currently serves as the Lillian Vernon Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at New York University and resides in Brooklyn.
Foer's work frequently examines themes of memory, intergenerational trauma, family identity, and moral responsibility, blending deeply personal narratives with broader societal and environmental issues. His narrative style often incorporates inventive visual design, non-traditional typography, and shifting viewpoints to explore the limits of expression when confronting grief and historical tragedy. Across both his novels and non-fiction books, Foer balances emotional depth with rigorous ethical inquiries into contemporary choices.
