Everything is Illuminated

“Imagine a novel as verbally cunning as A Clockwork Orange as harrowing as The Painted Bird as exuberant and twee as Candide and you have Everything Is Illuminated . . . Read it and you'll feel altered chastened—seared in the fire of something new.” — Washington PostWith only a yellowing photograph in hand a young man—also named Jonathan Safran Foer—sets out to find the woman who might or might not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of the war an amorous dog named Sammy Davis Junior Junior and the unforgettable Alex a young Ukrainian translator who speaks in a sublimely butchered English Jonathan is led on a quixotic journey over a devastated landscape and into an unexpected past.As their adventure unfolds Jonathan imagines the history of his grandfather’s village conjuring a magical fable of startling symmetries that unite generations across time. As his search moves back in time the fantastical history moves forward until reality collides with fiction in a heart-stopping scene of extraordinary power.“A rambunctious tour de force of inventive and intelligent storytelling . . . Foer can place his reader’s hand on the heart of human experience the transcendent beauty of human connections. Read you can feel the life beating.” — Philadelphia InquirerRobert Petkoff has appeared on film and TV in Woody Allen’s Irrational Man Madam Secretary Elementary The Good Wife Chappelle’s Show and Law & Order. His Broadway credits include All The Way with Bryan Cranston Anything Goes Ragtime Spamalot and Fiddler on the Roof. Mr. Petkoff is an Audie and Earphones award winner.