"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" is a novel by Jonathan Safran Foer that was published in 2005. The novel revolves around the nine year-old protagonist, Oskar Schell who lost his father in the when the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11th. Oskar is now suffering from severe PTSD about leaving the … [Read more...] about Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Jonathan Safran Foer
Jonathan Safran Foer was born on February 21st, 1977 in Washington D.C. Foer's father was a lawyer and his mother was the child of two Holocaust survivors. The middle child, Foer's two brothers have also gone on to become writers in their adult life. When Foer was a child, he was injured in a classroom accident. He has said that this lead to "something like a nervous breakdown drawn out over about three years."
Several years later, Foer traveled to Israel with other teenagers as part of a youth fellowship program. He became interested in writing in 1995, when he took his first writing course in college at Princeton University. The class was taught by author Joyce Carol Oates who told him that he had talent. Oates oversaw Foer's thesis about his maternal grandfather's experience during the Holocaust for which he won Princeton's Senior Creative Writing Thesis Prize. Foer briefly attended medical school after graduating from Princeton in 1999 but soon dropped out to focus on his writing.
In 2002, Foer expanded his thesis into his first novel, "Everything Is Illuminated." For the novel, he received a National Jewish Book Award and the Guardian First Book Award. In 2005, the novel was adapted into a movie starring Elijah Wood. Foer married fellow writer Nicole Krauss in 2004, and the couple had two children together before separating in 2014.
Foer second novel, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" was published in 2005 which was also turned into a movie. In 2008, Foer began teaching writing at Yale University. He is now a writer-in-residence for the creative writing program at New York University. Two years later, Foer published his third novel, "Tree of Codes" followed by "The New American Haggadah" in 2012. Both received mixed reviews. His most recent book release was "Here I Am" in 2016.
Foer also serves on the board of Farm Forward, a nonprofit organization that promotes conscientious food choices. His book 'Eating Animals' reflects his vegetarianism and love of animals. Foer currently lives in Brooklyn, New York near his ex-wife.