Jonathan Safran Foer Popular Books

Jonathan Safran Foer Biography & Facts

Jonathan Safran Foer (; born February 21, 1977) is an American novelist. He is known for his novels Everything Is Illuminated (2002), Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2005), Here I Am (2016), and for his non-fiction works Eating Animals (2009) and We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast (2019). He teaches creative writing at New York University. Early life and education Safran Foer was born in Washington, D.C., as the son of Albert Foer, a lawyer and president of the American Antitrust Institute, and Esther Safran Foer, a child of Holocaust survivors born in Poland, who is now Senior Advisor at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue. Safran Foer is the middle son of a Jewish family. His older brother, Franklin, is a former editor of The New Republic and his younger brother, Joshua, is the founder of Atlas Obscura and of Sefaria. Safran Foer was a "flamboyant" and sensitive child who, at the age of 8, was injured in a classroom chemical accident that resulted in "something like a nervous breakdown drawn out over about three years," during which "he wanted nothing, except to be outside his own skin."Safran Foer attended Georgetown Day School and in 1994 traveled to Israel with other North American Jewish teenagers in a program sponsored by Bronfman youth fellowships. In 1995, while a freshman at Princeton University, he took an introductory writing course with author Joyce Carol Oates, who took an interest in his writing, telling him that he had "that most important of writerly qualities, energy." Safran Foer later recalled that "she was the first person to ever make me think I should try to write in any sort of serious way. And my life really changed after that." Safran Foer graduated with an A.B. in philosophy from Princeton in 1999 after completing a 40-page-long senior thesis, titled "Before Reading The Book of Anticedents: Intention, Literary Interpretation, and the Hypothesized Author", under the supervision of Gideon Rosen. Oates served as the advisor to Safran Foer's creative writing senior thesis, an examination of the life of his maternal grandfather, the Holocaust survivor Louis Safran. For his thesis, Safran Foer received Princeton's Senior Creative Writing Thesis Prize.After graduating from Princeton, Safran Foer briefly attended the Mount Sinai School of Medicine before dropping out to pursue his writing career. Career Safran Foer graduated from Princeton in 1999 with a degree in philosophy, and traveled to Ukraine to expand his thesis. In 2001, he edited the anthology A Convergence of Birds: Original Fiction and Poetry Inspired by the Work of Joseph Cornell, to which he contributed the short story, "If the Aging Magician Should Begin to Believe". His Princeton thesis grew into a novel, Everything Is Illuminated, which was published by Houghton Mifflin in 2002. The book earned him a National Jewish Book Award (2001) and a Guardian First Book Award (2002). Safran Foer shared the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize with fellow authors Will Heinrich and Monique Truong in 2004. In 2005, Liev Schreiber wrote and directed a film adaptation of the novel, which starred Elijah Wood.Safran Foer's second novel Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, was published in 2005. In it, Safran Foer used 9/11 as a backdrop for the story of 9-year-old Oskar Schell, who learns how to deal with the death of his father in the World Trade Center. The novel used writing techniques known as visual writing. It follows multiple but interconnected storylines, is peppered with photographs of doorknobs and other such oddities, and ends with a 14-page flipbook. Safran Foer's use of these techniques resulted in both praise and excoriation from critics. Warner Bros. and Paramount turned the novel into a film, produced by Scott Rudin and directed by Stephen Daldry.Safran Foer wrote the libretto for an opera titled Seven Attempted Escapes From Silence, which premiered at the Berlin State Opera on September 14, 2005. In 2008, Safran Foer taught writing for the first time as a visiting professor of fiction at Yale University. As of 2021, he teaches in the graduate creative writing program at New York University. Safran Foer published his third novel, Tree of Codes, in November 2010. In March 2012, The New American Haggadah, edited by Safran Foer and translated by Nathan Englander, was released to mixed reviews.In 2009, Safran Foer published his third book, Eating Animals. A New York Times bestseller, Eating Animals provides a morally dense discussion of some of the ramifications that followed the proliferation of factory farms. It attempts to explain why and how humans can be so loving to our companion animals while simultaneously being indifferent to others, and explores what this inconsistency tells us about ourselves―what kinds of stories emerge from this selectivity. The book offers a significant focus on "storytelling"―the title of both the first and the last chapters of the book. Storytelling is Safran Foer's way of recognizing and dealing with the complexity of the subject that is eating animals, and suggests that, ultimately, our food choices tell stories about who we are, or, as Safran Foer has it in his book, "stories about food are stories about us―our history and our values."In May 2012, Safran Foer signed a two-book deal with Little, Brown. His novel, Escape From Children's Hospital, was due for publication in 2014, but is no longer on the publisher's schedule. In September 2016, he released the novel Here I Am.In 2019, as part of the book tour for We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast, Safran Foer took part in an on stage conversation with Samin Nosrat about eating and climate change.Safran Foer serves as a board member for Farm Forward, a nonprofit organization that implements innovative strategies to promote conscientious food choices, reduce farmed animal suffering, and advance sustainable agriculture. Views Safran Foer has been an outspoken critic of the meat industry. In 2006, he recorded the narration for the documentary If This is Kosher..., an exposé of the kosher certification process that advocates Jewish vegetarianism. Safran Foer's first book of non-fiction, Eating Animals (2009), addresses problems associated with industrialized meat and the ensuing ethical concerns. He said that he had long been "uncertain about how I felt [about eating meat]" and that the birth of his first child inspired "an urgency because I would have to make decisions on his behalf".In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Safran Foer reiterated his argument that Americans should eat less meat on account of the meat industry's social, environmental, and humanitarian consequences.In his personal life, Safran Foer has been an occasional vegetarian since the age of 10. Personal life In June 2004, Safran Foer married writer Nicole Krauss. They lived in Park Slope in Brooklyn, New York, and have two children. The couple divorced in 2014. From 2015 until 2017, Safran.... Discover the Jonathan Safran Foer popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Jonathan Safran Foer books.

Best Seller Jonathan Safran Foer Books of 2024

  • Tears Over Russia synopsis, comments

    Tears Over Russia

    Lisa Brahin

    A sweeping saga of a family and community fighting for survival against the ravages of history.Set between events depicted in Fiddler on the Roof and ...

  • The Finder synopsis, comments

    The Finder

    Will Ferguson

    From the Scotiabank Giller Prize–winning novelist of 419 comes a spellbinding literary adventure novel about precious objects lost and found.The world is filled with wonders, lost ...

  • Flauschig synopsis, comments

    Flauschig

    Hanna Bervoets

    Florence, Maisie, Stephan und Diek, alle sind mehr oder weniger unglücklich, im Grunde also ganz normal. Sie vermissen etwas, wissen jedoch nicht so genau, was, bis sie, jeder für ...

  • Summary of Here I Am synopsis, comments

    Summary of Here I Am

    Instaread

    Summary of Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer | Includes Analysis   Preview:   Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer is a novel that describes the last few months of a marriag...

  • This Is Not A Drill synopsis, comments

    This Is Not A Drill

    Extinction Rebellion

    Extinction Rebellion are inspiring a whole generation to take action on climate breakdown. Now you can become part of the movement and together, we can make history.It's time. Thi...

  • Nothing Is Forgotten synopsis, comments

    Nothing Is Forgotten

    Peter Golden

    From the beloved author of Comeback Love and Wherever There Is Light, comes “a sweeping tale full of humor and heartbreak” (Karin Tanabe, author of The Diplomat’s Daughter) about t...

  • Tan fuerte, tan cerca synopsis, comments

    Tan fuerte, tan cerca

    Jonathan Safran Foer

    Una narración creativa, tierna y delicada, una historia de amor y supervivenciaOskar, un niño ingenioso y sensi­ble, encuentra una caja con una llave escondida entre las pertenen­c...

  • Unbearable Lightness synopsis, comments

    Unbearable Lightness

    Portia de Rossi

    “An unusually fresh and engrossing memoir of both Hollywood and modern womanhood.” Los Angeles TimesIn this searing, unflinchingly honest memoir, actress Portia de Rossi shares the...

  • The Last Equation of Isaac Severy synopsis, comments

    The Last Equation of Isaac Severy

    Nova Jacobs

    Wall Street Journal’s “Mysteries: Best of 2018” Book of the Month Club Selection Edgar Award Nominee: Best First Novel by an American Author A “hugely entertaining” (Wall Street Jo...

  • House on Endless Waters synopsis, comments

    House on Endless Waters

    Emuna Elon

    “Elon powerfully evokes the obscurity of the past and its hold on the present as we stumble through revelation after revelation with Yoel. As we accompany him on his journey…we sha...

  • The Concubine of Shanghai synopsis, comments

    The Concubine of Shanghai

    Hong Ying

    China, 1907. Sixteenyearold orphan Cassia is sold by her aunt to a brothel. There, she works as a lowly maid for Madame Emerald until a powerful and dangerous client plucks her fro...

  • Super Sad True Love Story synopsis, comments

    Super Sad True Love Story

    Gary Shteyngart

    Eine witzigschräge Erzählung über das Amerika der Zukunft – und über den großen Wert der Menschlichkeit in allen ZeitenAmerika, in einer nahen Zukunft: Das Land steht vor dem finan...

  • Feeding Britain synopsis, comments

    Feeding Britain

    Tim Lang

    How does Britain get its food? Why is our current system at breaking point?How can we fix it before it is too late?British food has changed remarkably in the last half century. As ...

  • A Key to Treehouse Living synopsis, comments

    A Key to Treehouse Living

    Elliot Reed

    An Indies Introduce Pick, Indie Next Pick, and an Amazon Best Book of the Month, A Key to Treehouse Living will introduce you to a modern Huck Finnan unforgettable voice that will ...

  • Das Erbe der Rosenthals synopsis, comments

    Das Erbe der Rosenthals

    Armando Lucas Correa & Ute Leibmann

    1939 muss die elfjährige Hannah mit ihrer Familie aus Berlin fliehen, denn sie ist Jüdin. Ein Schiff soll sie nach Kuba bringen, doch nur die Wenigsten dürfen die St. Louis dort ve...

  • Streicheln oder Schlachten synopsis, comments

    Streicheln oder Schlachten

    Marcel Sebastian

    Wir müssen über unser Verhältnis zu Tieren sprechen – wie uns die neuesten Erkenntnisse der Soziologie dabei helfenEs ist kompliziert – das bringt wohl den Kern der MenschTierBezie...

  • Extrem laut und unglaublich nah synopsis, comments

    Extrem laut und unglaublich nah

    Jonathan Safran Foer

    Extrem gut und unglaublich gelungen – der neue Roman von Jonathan Safran Foer Wie wunderbar er erzählen kann, hat Jonathan Safran Foer schon in seinem ersten Roman Alles ist erleuc...

  • Terra Incognita synopsis, comments

    Terra Incognita

    Ian Goldin & Robert Muggah

    'Amazing. It would be my desert island choice' Martin Rees'Fascinating, beautiful, alarming and revelatory use of mapping and infographics' Stephen Fry on EarthTime maps'An indispe...

  • Landpartie synopsis, comments

    Landpartie

    Gary Shteyngart

    Das populärste Buch des großen amerikanischen Erzählers: Ein Haus auf dem Land, acht Freunde, vier Romanzen und sechs Monate in IsolationEs ist März 2020, und eine uns wohlvertraut...

  • Willkommen in Lake Success synopsis, comments

    Willkommen in Lake Success

    Gary Shteyngart

    Ein wahnwitziger Roadtrip durch das zerrissene AmerikaBarry Cohen, Sohn eines jüdischen Poolreinigers aus der Bronx, lebt den amerikanischen Traum mit großem Haus und bildschöner E...

  • The Longest Story synopsis, comments

    The Longest Story

    Richard Girling

    ‘Lucid, informed and persuasive’ Evening Standard‘Thoughtprovoking’ Daily Mail‘An extraordinary book’ Nicholas Evans, author of The Horse WhispererThe history of humanity’s relatio...

  • Das Buch der anderen synopsis, comments

    Das Buch der anderen

    Zadie Smith

    »Es gibt so viele Möglichkeiten, Figuren zu erschaffen, wie es Autoren gibt.« Zadie Smith21 Autorinnen und Autoren ihrer Generation folgten Zadie Smiths Bitte, zugunsten der von ih...

  • Die Frau des Zoodirektors synopsis, comments

    Die Frau des Zoodirektors

    Diane Ackerman

    Eine wahre Geschichte aus dem Zweiten WeltkriegWährend der Zweite Weltkrieg tobt, wird der Warschauer Zoo Schauplatz einer dramatischen Rettungsaktion, die über 300 Juden vor dem s...

  • The Shoe on the Roof synopsis, comments

    The Shoe on the Roof

    Will Ferguson

    Meet Thomas Rosanoff: med student and researcher. Meet his subjects: three homeless men who believe they are God.Ever since his girlfriend ended things, Thomas’s life has been on a...

  • Relativity synopsis, comments

    Relativity

    Antonia Hayes

    A “beautifully written, heartbreaking” (S. J. Watson) debut novel about a gifted boy who discovers the truth about his past, his overprotective single mother who tries desperately ...

  • A Joosr Guide to... Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer synopsis, comments

    A Joosr Guide to... Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

    Joosr

    In today's fastpaced world, it's tough to find the time to read. But with Joosr guides, you can get the key insights from bestselling nonfiction titles in less than 20 minutes. Whe...

  • Zwei am Puls der Erde synopsis, comments

    Zwei am Puls der Erde

    Theresa Leisgang & Raphael Thelen

    Eine Reise um die Welt und zu sich selbstDie Angst vor der Klimakrise überschattet immer mehr ihren Alltag. Deshalb brechen Theresa Leisgang und Raphael Thelen zur größten Reise ih...