September's Picks/ Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

By Jonathan Safran Foer

For September, we have a special review which is part of "THE SEPTEMBER PROJECT." Since 2004, libraries around the world have organized events about freedom and issues that matter to their communities during the month of September, which is also National Literacy Month. This grassroots project favors free over fee, public over private and voices over silence. For more information or to see what other libraries are doing visit: http://theseptemberproject.org.

"EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDILBY CLOSE" is a story of survival and healing. It looks at grief through the eyes of both child and adults.

Oskar Schell is a precocious 9 year-old whose father died on September 11, 2001. But the focus is not so much on the attacks of 9/11, rather it is more the story of a young boy's search for a lock to fit the key he believes his father left behind as part of their favorite game. The search takes Oskar through the five boroughs of New York and introduces him to characters who are all survivors themselves one way or another. He is typical of many children in that he tells the occasional fib to get the information he seeks or plays sick in order to stay home from school to continue his search. He asks countless questions and invents devices and things in his mind that will, if they could be made real, would always keep people in touch with each other and the world.

"...LOUD & ...CLOSE" also tells the story of Oskar's family, focusing on his grandparents and their survival of WWII and the bombing of Dresden and coming to America.