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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…
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.
Read an extract from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
