'Everything Is Illuminated'

A rather fascinating novel for such a young writer. Written in two parts, two novels. One is written by Jonathan Safran Foer, the same name as the actual author of Everything is Illuminated, but it is not that Jonathan Safran Foer, and tells the tale of a village in Ukraine named Trachimbrod (for whatever reason, changed from Trochenbrod) and its beginnings in the 18th century.

Strictly absurd, it traces the town's beginnings and the family line of Foer's family featuring a series of supernatural happenings.

The other "novel" is written by Alex, an immature, yet balanced you Ukrainian charged with transporting Foer to find the remains of Trachimbrod and a woman, Augustine, who allegedly helped Foer's grandfather escape elimination by the Nazis.

It is Alex's story that is most intriguing. Written with his youthful English tongue along with footnotes and letters directed at Foer, who is proofing the chapters in this super-fake scenario. There is almost more narrative and imagination set between the relationship between Foer and Alex than in any of the sub-novels.

The Holocaust casts a long, long shadow. It's impossible to escape and it infects everything around us.

Will there be a day when this is not the case?