The History of Love

<p><b>Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2006 and winner of the 2006 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, <i>The History of Love</i> explores the lasting power of the written word and the lasting power of love. Published as a Penguin Essential for the first time.</b> <br><br><i>'When I was born my mother named me after every girl in a book my father gave her called The History of Love. . . '</i><br><br>Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer is trying to find a cure for her mother's loneliness. Believing she might discover it in an old book her mother is lovingly translating, she sets out in search of its author.<br><br>Across New York an old man called Leo Gursky is trying to survive a little bit longer. He spends his days dreaming of the love lost that sixty years ago in Poland inspired him to write a book. And although he doesn't know it yet, that book also survived: crossing oceans and generations, and changing lives. . . <br><br>'Wonderfully affecting...brilliant, touching and remarkably poised' <i>Sunday Telegraph</i><br><br>'A tender tribute to human valiance. Who could be unmoved by a cast of characters whose daily battles are etched on out mind in such diamond-cut prose?' <i>Independent on Sunday</i><br><br>'Devastating...one of the most passionate vindications of the written word in recent fiction. It takes one's breath away' <i>Spectator </i></p> <p><b>Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2006 and winner of the 2006 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, <i>The History of Love</i> explores the lasting power of the written word and the lasting power of love. Published as a Penguin Essential for the first time.</b> <br><br><i>'When I was born my mother named me after every girl in a book my father gave her called The History of Love. . . '</i><br><br>Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer is trying to find a cure for her mother's loneliness. Believing she might discover it in an old book her mother is lovingly translating, she sets out in search of its author.<br><br>Across New York an old man called Leo Gursky is trying to survive a little bit longer. He spends his days dreaming of the love lost that sixty years ago in Poland inspired him to write a book. And although he doesn't know it yet, that book also survived: crossing oceans and generations, and changing lives. . . <br><br>'Wonderfully affecting...brilliant, touching and remarkably poised' <i>Sunday Telegraph</i><br><br>'A tender tribute to human valiance. Who could be unmoved by a cast of characters whose daily battles are etched on out mind in such diamond-cut prose?' <i>Independent on Sunday</i><br><br>'Devastating...one of the most passionate vindications of the written word in recent fiction. It takes one's breath away' <i>Spectator </i></p>