Nicole Krauss Interview, plus links to author biography, book summaries, excerpts and reviews

Nicole Krauss
Photo: Goni Riskin

Nicole Krauss

An interview with Nicole Krauss

Nicole Krauss explains what inspired her to write A History of Love.

I started to write The History of Love in the spring of 2002, just after my first novel was published. It was a strange time: wonderful, but also melancholy. Something about the feeling of writing seemed to change for me once the book was published. I felt, a bit, as if I'd lost something hard to put my finger on, something personal and natural that I'd loved about writing. I was working on a new book, but my heart wasn't quite in it. So one day I decided to throw away the hundred or so pages I had. I wanted to give up my old ideas about writing - or at least about trying to write well - and just write something for myself. To no end. A nothing.

Soon after that, Leo's voice appeared on the page. It was so familiar to me: at once the easiest thing I'd ever written, and also the most alive. Sometimes I even confused his voice with my own, or was unable to tell us apart; strange to say, considering he's an eighty-year-old man from Poland. But with the arrival of Leo's voice, I found a way to write about things that were personal without being autobiographical. To me that's an important distinction. If I were to write an autobiographical sentence about this moment, I might say: I'm writing in the study on the top floor of my house, one knee up, with my sister's sweatshirt on. But if I were to write something personal, I'd describe something of my inner life - something I can't do with ease in a reader's guide essay, without the armor of fiction - with the hope that it might be familiar to someone else. If it's personal to me, maybe it will feel personal to someone who reads my books. I wanted to write a book that people would take personally.

So while the novel is filled with stories I heard growing up from my four grandparents, born in Hungary, Poland, Germany, and White Russia, and from my parents, one who grew up London and the other in Israel and New York, at the same time the novel is entirely imagined - and more than that, I wanted it to be a celebration of the imagination.

It's hard to say what the seeds were for the story in The History of Love, aside from certain experiences and feelings that took a novel to describe. Almost from the start, I knew that, along with Leo, I also wanted to have a young girl in the book. So Alma was born. And for almost a year I wrote both of their stories, without having any idea of their relationship to each other. I just knew that somehow they belonged in the same book. Needless to say, many pages were thrown away.

I know that early on I was moved by the idea of people who need to invent things in order to survive, either for their own sake or for the sake of protecting those they love. At some point in the book, Leo imagines telling his son: The truth is the thing I invented so I could live. Everyone in the book invents things they need to believe, or protects the inventions of those they love. And everyone in the book writes, which I suppose is no accident. For a long time - almost a year - I wrote my nothings, my pages to no end. And pretty soon it became clear to me how much I wanted them to be something, how much of a piece they felt, with Leo and Alma almost opposite sides of the same coin. I don't remember when, exactly, the form of the novel crystallized in my mind. I know I worried a lot, thinking I would never bring all of the strands of it together. Until I got there, I didn't know how the book would end. But somehow it did end, almost as accidentally as it began. And now, to my surprise, it's something.

Unless otherwise stated, this interview was conducted at the time the book was first published, and is reproduced with permission of the publisher. This interview may not be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the copyright holder.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Books by this Author

Books by Nicole Krauss at BookBrowse
To Be a Man jacket Forest Dark jacket Great House jacket The History of Love jacket
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Nicole Krauss but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose readalikes

  • Paul Auster

    Paul Auster

    Paul Auster was the bestselling author of 4 3 2 1Sunset ParkThe Book of Illusions, Moon Palace, and The New York Trilogy, among many other works. In 2006, he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Great House

    Try:
    Invisible
    by Paul Auster

  • Trezza Azzopardi

    Trezza Azzopardi

    Trezza Azzopardi was born in Cardiff, UK. She is a graduate of the Creative Writing Program at the University of East Anglia and is an external examiner for Creative and Cultural Studies at Norwich School of Art and Design.

    ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The History of Love

    Try:
    Remember Me
    by Trezza Azzopardi

We recommend 32 similar authors


Non-members can see 2 results. Become a member
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket
    The House of Doors
    by Tan Twan Eng
    Every July, I take on the overly ambitious goal of reading all of the novels chosen as longlist ...
  • Book Jacket: The Puzzle Box
    The Puzzle Box
    by Danielle Trussoni
    During the tumultuous last days of the Tokugawa shogunate, a 17-year-old emperor known as Meiji ...
  • Book Jacket
    Something, Not Nothing
    by Sarah Leavitt
    In 2020, after a lifetime of struggling with increasingly ill health, Sarah Leavitt's partner, ...
  • Book Jacket
    A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens
    by Raul Palma
    Raul Palma's debut novel A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens introduces Hugo Contreras, who came to the ...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

H I O the G

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.