Nicole Krauss met fellow writer Jonathan Safran Foer when their first novels, Krauss’s Man Walks into a Room (2002) and Foer’s Everything Is Illuminated (2001), were nominated for the same literary award. The couple shared similar backgrounds, both coming from Jewish families and in identical places in their careers. They married in 2004, and in 2005, both writers published their second novels. The History of Love appeared early in the year, followed by Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Although Krauss and Foer don’t admit to being involved in each other’s writing processes, the similarities between the two novels are striking. Both are intergenerational stories that feature multiple narrators and points of view, taking place in the past and present. Both are set primarily in present-day New York City and explore themes of grieving, communication, storytelling, and the impact of generational trauma, including the legacy of the Holocaust. In both novels, the two primary narrators are an aging old man and a young child. Krauss’s Leo Gursky and Foer’s Thomas Schell are old men that survived World War II but are deeply damaged by their experiences. They have adult sons from whom they are estranged but try to communicate with through ambiguous, creative writing.