EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE

‘Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close’ by Jonathan Safran Foer was first published in 2005 telling the story of 9/11 from the perspective of a child who loses his father in the World Trade Centre.

It’s now twenty years since the terror attack on the Twin Towers and whilst there have been plenty of accounts and narratives surrounding the tragic attack on New York this international bestseller makes a timely read or re-read in your book club. A Missed Opportunity that is bound to ignite discussion around the anniversary this September.

The novel begins a couple of years after the 9/11 attack and a young boy Oskar, who having lost his father in the Twin Towers catastrophe, discovers a mysterious locker key in a vase in his father’s wardrobe. Oskar is an unusually intelligent and imaginative inventor, a letter writer and amateur detective and the discovery of a key sets him off on a journey finding new friends, family as well as an adventure around the boroughs, homes and lives of New Yorkers.

The Den enjoyed the layers of stories within the quest and indulged in Oskar’s adventures around New York City and its suburbs. For those with strong connections to 9/11 this is a sensitively observed novel which deliberately is evasive of the event itself - focusing rather on the themes of coping with tragedy, family secrets and isolation, all part of the melting pot that is formed in disasters of this scale. 'Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close'' is intelligent, poignant and sad. A book to mark a chilling moment in our history.