JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER talks about EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE April 26, 2006

Jonathan Safran Foer�s newest novel, just now in paperback, has been one of the most discussed, acclaimed, and debated novels in recent memory. And with good reason -- as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted, �Jonathan Safran Foer has done something both masterful and absolutely necessary: he has written the first great novel about September 11.� Foer confronts a subject few writers have dared approach, and what he discovers is solace in that most human quality, imagination. Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is on a mission to find the lock that matches 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. As he roams the five boroughs, Oskar encounters a motley assortment of people who are all survivors in their own way. His journey concludes in an emotional climax of truth, beauty, and heartbreak. In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Foer once again demonstrates his ability to evoke and unravel the most personal and complex matters of the heart. Jonathan Safran Foer is the author of the bestseller Everything Is Illuminated, named Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times and the winner of numerous awards, including the Guardian First Book Prize, the National Jewish Book Award, and the New York Public Library Young Lions Prize. Foer was one of Rolling Stone�s �People of the Year� and Esquire�s �Best and Brightest.� The film of Everything Is Illuminated, directed by Liev Schreiber and starring Elijah Wood, will be released in August 2005. Foer lives in Brooklyn. 7:30 PM at Cody�s Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley