This book contains a book within it, and that is called The History of Love. Morsels "excerpted" from that book left me wishing it was a fleshed-out read itself.

The book is unconventional, its formatting fresh in the last 20 pages. (You'd have to read it.) The story transcends eras and ages, much like love itself. This is just a kaleidoscope of words.

It's a gorgeous book, its language alternately lilting and spare. Leo Gursky and Alma Singer are fully realized characters, ones who I wish were real so that I could know them.

(Sidenote: Much has been made of Krauss's marriage to Jonathan Safran Foer, the twentysomething wunderkind behind Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close. The literati speculate that he had a hand in this book, and while I find that more believable than the idea that Capote had a hand in Harper Lee's Mockingbird, this is certainly Nicole Krauss's story.)