Forest Dark

Jules Epstein is undergoing a metamorphosis. In the wake of his parents’ deaths, a divorce, and retirement from his law firm, he’s felt an irresistible need to give away his possessions. With the last of his wealth he travels to Israel, with a nebulous plan to do something to honor his parents. In Tel Aviv, he is sidetracked by a charismatic American rabbi who is planning a reunion for the descendants of King David and insists that Epstein join. He also meets the rabbi’s beautiful daughter who convinces Epstein to become involved in a project of hers with life-changing consequences. On her own pilgrimage, a well-known young novelist arrives at the Tel Aviv Hilton, where she has stayed every year since her birth. She’s left her family for this trip, hoping that the hotel can cure her writer’s block and unlock a dimension of reality that has been closed off to her. But when she meets a retired literature professor who proposes a project she can’t refuse, she’s drawn into a mystery that will profoundly change her. Bursting with life and humor, Forest Dark is a mesmerizing novel of transformation and self-realization—of looking beyond all that is visible toward the infinite. Performed by Gabra Zackman

Nicole Krauss is the author of the novels Forest Dark, Great House, The History of Love, and Man Walks Into a Room. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper’s, Esquire, and The Best American Short Stories, and her books have been translated into more than thirty-five languages. She is currently the inaugural writer-in-residence at Columbia University’s Mind, Brain, and Behavior Institute. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.