Everything Is Illuminated

Because Jonathan Safran Foer made us see so many things—including our memory, pasts and human connections—in a new light.

A young man who shares the author's name sets off for the Ukraine hoping to find the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. And yet, this isn't a Holocaust story like any other you've ever read. Narrated mostly by Jonathan's Ukrainian translator, in hilarious broken English, the book is a startling mash-up of heartbreaking history, fable, humor and dazzling narrative tricks. The result? An indelible story that's both irreverent and haunting.

— Dawn Raffel