June 2006 Ask The Author: Jonathan Safran Foer, EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE

We are thrilled to host Jonathan Safran Foer this June in our ongoing Ask The Author series. Jonathan will be live on Gather.com on Friday, June 23rd, from 2-4pm ET discussing his best-selling novel, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, now out in paperback.

About Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

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.

(Copyright 2005 Houghton Mifflin Company)

We will be posting excerpts from and articles about Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close weekly before discussion at asktheauthor.gather.com

Be sure to join Jonathan Safran Foer for the live discussion on Gather on Friday, June 23, 2006 from 2-4pm ET at asktheauthor.gather.com

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Find out more about Jonathan Safran Foer at Houghton Mifflin

Buy Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close:
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Book Sense

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