THE BOOK FAIR

Review:

 Nicole Krauss weaves a mysterious and clever tale in the literary novel, “Great House.”   The novel shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 2011, and was the finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction, 2010.  The novel moves back and forth in time as the author connects the different stories.

Nadia, a writer and novelist residing in London, inherits the desk from a Chilean poet, Daniel Varsky.  Aaron resides in Israel and raises two boys, Uri and Dov, one of whom is a judge and with whom Aaron has a difficult relationship.  Lottie Berg lives in London and is a Holocaust survivor who harbors secrets.  Lottie refuses to share with her husband, Bender, any information about the desk that takes up so much space in their attic.   Mr. Weisz, a Holocaust survivor from Budapest, devotes his life to the collection of Jewish property the Nazis stole.   

The characters in this novel share the experience of terrible loss.  The storyline is intelligent, interesting and well-plotted though the writing is at times, tedious.