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In a vase, in a closet, two years after his father died on September 11, nine-year-old Oskar discovers a key...
The key belonged to his father, he's sure of that. But which of New York's 162 million locks does it open?
So begins a quest that takes Oskar – inventor, letter writer, Francophile, detective, vegan and collector of butterflies – across the five boroughs of New York and into the jumbled lives of friends, relatives and complete strangers. It's a quest that gives Oskar hope and heavy boots in just about equal measures – but will it bring him any closer to, or even further from, his lost father?
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is one of the most dazzling, courageous and devastating books any of us here at HH have read in a long time. Not only that, it's also full of life and humour, and gleams with originality. We're so convinced that you'll find something wonderful on every page that if you write to us at hamish@hamishhamilton.co.uk we'll send you a snippet to prove it. In the meantime, here are some lines from the first chapter to intrigue you, and we hope they'll leave you tingling to read on:
There are so many times when you need to make a quick escape, but humans don't have their own wings, or not yet, anyway, so how about a birdseed shirt?
After a while, Dad asked me if I was awake. I told him no, because I knew that he didn't like to leave until I had fallen asleep and I didn't want him to be tired for work in the morning.
Self-defense was something that I was extremely curious about, for obvious reasons, and Mom thought it would be good for me to have a physical activity besides tambourining, so my first jujitsu class was three and a half months ago.
I thought about that my second time in a limousine, when the renter and I were on our way to dig up Dad's empty coffin.
Read our exclusive interview with Jonathan Safran Foer here
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is published in Penguin paperback this month
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