Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

By: Jonathan Safran Foer

Narrated by: Jeff Woodman, Barbara Caruso, Richard Ferrone

Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

Jonathan Safran Foer's best-selling debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated, wowed critics on its way to winning several literary prizes, including Book of the Year honors from the Los Angeles Times. It has been published in 24 countries and will soon be a major motion picture. Foer's talent continues to shine in this sometimes hilarious and always heartfelt follow-up.

Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is a precocious Francophile who idolizes Stephen Hawking and plays the tambourine extremely well. He's also a boy struggling to come to terms with his father's death in the World Trade Center attacks. As he searches New York City for the lock that fits a mysterious key his father left behind, Oskar discovers much more than he could have imagined.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a masterfully imagined novel from an author Time hails as "a certified wunderkind".

©2005 Jonathan Safran Foer (P)2005 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

• 2005 Audie Award Nominee, Multi-Voiced Performance

"Piercing and so funny." (The Bookseller)
"[Oskar's] first-person narration of his journey is arrestingly beautiful, and readers won't soon forget him." (Booklist)
"Jonathan Safran Foer's second novel is everything one hoped it would be: ambitious, pyrotechnic, riddling, and above all...extremely moving. An exceptional achievement." (Salman Rushdie)
"Brilliant....Unafraid to show his traumatized characters' constant groping for emotional catharsis, Foer demonstrates once again that he is one of the few contemporary writers willing to risk sentimentalism in order to address great questions of truth, love, and beauty." (Publishers Weekly)

My favorite Audiobook

I've been an Audible.com subcsriber since 2001, and this is the first time I considered listening to a book over again as soon as I finished it. It was that good. The readers are some of the best I've heard. The story really wow-ed me, from start to end.

I listen to books while I walk, and I probably made a spectacle of myself several times when something in the book made my eyes well up with tears.

OMG. Tragic and beautiful.

This book brought me to tears repeatedly. I cried from sadness, shame, pity, love, beauty and happiness. I never cry.

I'm glad that I listened to this book. I feel changed for the better because I took the time out of my busy life to contemplate; and that is what I think was the authors purpose, but I would never want to experience it again. This story is so heavy, heady, and well written that its like therapy for the soul. It was a cathartic read.

Love Love Loved It!

This is one of the saddest, most wonderful books I've ever read. Having lived in Manhattan on 9/11, I appreciated the subtle ways that the author and the narrators captured the nuances of that time in New York. The characters are unique, but in so many ways relatable. I don't know how anyone cannot love this book.

Extremely Loud and interesting

This was a very interesting story of a child and his family's reaction to the death of a family member through the disaster call 9/11. It made me smile, cry, wonder and cheer the boy on. Great listen!

Quest for the Sixth Borough

I just finished this book and am having a little trouble getting my arms entirely around it. I started the first third of the book, then went back and started over. I enjoyed the character Oskar very much - his quests, inventions, methods of coping and overall approach to the world. His observations often made me laugh out loud, as did the numerous reply letters received from an eclectic array of scholars and personalities. Conversely, Oskar’s episodes of obvious grief and pain (heavy boots) often made me a little misty….. when that happened, I gave myself a little bruise. But I didn’t particularly care for the weaving in of Oskar’s grandparents’ side/back stories. To me, while they emphasized the overall theme, they nonetheless interrupted the main storyline. I didn’t feel that the payoff at the end compensated me for the constant intrusion. I cared very much for Oskar and his father, and Oskar’s family and friends, but only in their direct relationship to him. I’d be interested to see how the screenwriter dealt with these generational relationships.

The movie was better...

If you could sum up Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close in three words, what would they be?

Journey for Acceptance

Who was your favorite character and why?

The kid. It was 90% about him and the story about his grandparents was kind of unnecessary and boring.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

It was child-like, which was appropriate given the protagonist.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

It was made into a movie and the movie was better. I didn't like the ending of the book, but they changed the ending in the movie and it made MUCH more sense and was definitely better.

Any additional comments?

Most of the book was good, everything 9/11 was good as was the relationships between the kid and his parents. But I didn't like the ending and I didn't really see the point in the grandparent story. It didn't add anything to the story.

excellent. insightful, sensitive and humorous

excellent book. very insightful and sensitive, dark at times yet humorous. worth a read and probably a 2nd read as well

It was a little hard to follow at times, BUT

Super happy I stayaed with it. I have never seen the movie;I prefer books. The narration was great. What a lovely story told mostly from the angst and sorrow of a child. Will recommend to friends and family!

Don’t miss this book!

A touching story with rare characters that lodge themselves in your heart for ever.
The readers are wonderful to listen to!

Incredibly written - one of the best!

When I choose a book, movie, play, etc, I appreciate and seek out an experience of being "moved" in some way, as I imagine most of us do. I want to laugh out loud, reflect for days, feel inspired, and cry. Sometimes all of those things happen in one book, like Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

This author has this magical talent of being able to describe the emotional underpinnings of loss, pain, and turmoil of a child. I know, I'm making this sound incredibly depressing......which it really was at some points, but based on the character development of young Oscar, I had faith the result of his turmoil would strengthen his character.

Additionally, I am a child psychologist and have worked with children that cut or hurt themselves. In all my research and attempts to better understand this, this book truly offered a real life perspective of how a child might do this as a coping strategy. The author wove this into the story without trying to explain it or make it too clinical or the focus of the problems in the book.

Finally, I think this book is versatile and would be enjoyed by multiple types of readers. I have not seen the movie yet, but I expect it will not be as good as this audio book! It is a book that I will remember forever. That is quite the tribute coming from a person who reads / listens to 2-3 books per month!