Jonathan Safran Foer emerged as one of the most original writers of his generation with his best-selling debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated. Now, with humor, tenderness, and awe, he confronts the traumas of our recent history. What he discovers is solace in that most human quality, imagination. Meet Oskar Schell, an inventor, Francophile, tambourine player, Shakespearean actor, jeweler, pacifist, correspondent with Stephen Hawking and Ringo Starr. He is nine years old. And he is on an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York. His mission is to find the lock that fits a mysterious key belonging to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11. An inspired innocent, Oskar is alternately endearing, exasperating, and hilarious as he careens from Central Park to Coney Island to Harlem on his search. Along the way he is always dreaming up inventions to keep those he loves safe from harm. What about a birdseed shirt to let you fly away? What if you could actually hear everyone's heartbeat? His goal is hopeful, but the past speaks a loud warning in stories of those who've lost loved ones before. As Oskar roams New York, he encounters a motley assortment of humanity who are all survivors in their own way. He befriends a 103-year-old war reporter, a tour guide who never leaves the Empire State Building, and lovers enraptured or scorned. Ultimately, Oskar ends his journey where it began, at his father's grave. But now he is accompanied by the silent stranger who has been renting the spare room of his grandmother's apartment. They are there to dig up his father's empty coffin.

乔纳森•萨福兰•弗尔（Jonathan Safran Foer），1977年出生于华盛顿，在普林斯顿大学求学期间师承乔伊斯•卡罗尔•欧茨，学习写作，获得高级创意写作论文奖。他的短篇小说曾在《巴黎评论》和《纽约客》上发表，2000年获得西洋镜小说奖。

毕业之后，弗尔前往乌克兰旅行，随后完成首部长篇小说《了了》（Everything Is Illuminated），该书为他赢得全美犹太人图书奖和《卫报》首作奖。2005年，《了了》被导演列维•施瑞博尔搬上银幕。同年，《特别响，非常近》出版，为他带来更大的荣誉和更广泛的认知度，并被《朗读者》导演斯蒂芬•戴德利看中，改编成电影。2009年，弗尔出版了非虚构作品《吃动物》（Eating Animals），探讨素食主义。

2007年，弗尔入选《格兰塔》杂志“美国最优秀青年作家”，2010年，入选《纽约客》“四十岁以下二十位最佳作家”。

目前，弗尔担任纽约大学创意写作课程教授，与同是小说家的妻子妮可•克劳斯住在布鲁克林。