Everything is Illuminated (Penguin Essentials)

Everything Is Illuminated is Jonathan Safran Foer’s bestselling novel of a search for truth The inspiration for the Liev Schreiber film, starring Elijah Wood A young man arrives in the Ukraine, clutching in his hand a tattered photograph. He is searching for the woman who fifty years ago saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Unfortunately, he is aided in his quest by Alex, a translator with an uncanny ability to mangle English into bizarre new forms; a “blind” old man haunted by memories of the war; and an undersexed guide dog named Sammy Davis Jr, Jr. What they are looking for seems elusive — a truth hidden behind veils of time, language and the horrors of war. What they find turns all their worlds upside down …

‘An astonishing feat of writing: hilariously funny and deeply serious, a gripping narrative. Extraordinary.’ -The Times

‘One of the most impressive novel debuts of recent years’ -Joyce Carol Oates, The Times Literary Supplement

‘A first novel of startling originality’ -Jay McInerney, Observer

‘Showy, smart. Made me laugh a lot’Susan Sontag, -The Times Literary Supplement

‘It seems hard to believe that such a young writer can have such a deep understanding of both comedy and tragedy’ -Erica Wagner, The Times

‘A box of treasures’LA Times’ ‘Funny, life affirming, brilliant’ -Esquire

Jonathan Safran Foer was born in 1977. He is the author of Everything is Illuminated, which won the National Jewish Book Award and the Guardian First Book award; Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which is now a major film starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock; and Eating Animals. He is also the editor of A Convergence of Birds.