A+L

SPOILER: Leo and Alma Singer's "interwoven threads" finally come together to make the "tapestry" at the end of the book. Although I won't tell you what happens after they meet, I will tell you about some of the big take aways that Krauss gives to any reader of her novel.

Of course, I feel it is only appropriate to provide a list of these take aways because we know that this is how Alma Singer would provide them:

1. There are very few things in life that are unbearable.
In this novel, we follow three characters. Leo Gursky is a Jewish man who survived and escaped the Jewish genocides across Europe that occurred during the Holocaust. Not only did he survive this, but he also continued to survive the series of unfortunate events to follow. These include heart problems (literally and figuratively). He survived a heart attack, but he also survived heart break when he lost the love of his life to another man. He also survived the painstakingly tragic experience of outliving your own child, who discovers your existence only to die, leaving blank pages where a father/son bond can never be created.
Alma Singer, a mere fourteen at the end of our story, is also a survivor. She survives the death of her father, an absentee and grief stricken mother's neglect, and the loss of her best friend. If these two can survive, so can you.

2. Words have immeasurable powers. 
Upon writing his novel, it is doubtful that Leo Gursky knew that one day, his work would be valuable enough to be stolen, to create a great love, to give a child an identity, and to symbolize a sense of hope. And yet his words were valuable enough to cause all of these things to happen. His friend, Zvi, stole his work and published it as his own. Mr. David Singer gave Leo's words to the love of his life. Together with his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Singer named their daughter "Alma", after Alma Mereminski. Alma Mereminski was Leo's soulmate, and the woman her wrote this book about and for. She was the only character in the book so sacred and passionate the Zvi could not bring himself to change her name, which gave Alma her identity, being named after a symbol of undying love. What could be more romantic than that? Alma Singer, who is faced with many hard times in the book as she struggles to discover her identity for herself, is given hope and purpose because someone (not going to spoil it with a name) asks Alma's mother to translate Leo's beautiful words into another language, sparking Alma's journey to find the woman she was named after, and thus bringing her to Leo.

3. The little things always turn out to be the biggest things.
In the book, Krauss shows us how essential the little things are to survival. Although from the outside, these simple things may seem quite basic and of little value, to us, they are crucial. This is shown in the way that Alma wears her father's sweater, and practices putting up a tent in record time, because it his something he would have done. For her, putting up a tent is how she keeps her father's memory alive. The same is true of Bird who tries to connect with the father he cannot remember through taking his Jewish traditions VERY seriously. Although maybe too seriously in our eyes, to him that is the one piece of his father that he can connect to without needing a memory. And of course there is Leo, who makes his survival on the little things. In order to bear the most unbearable circumstances, he lives for newspaper clippings. These articles of his son and his successes throughout his life, are what give Leo closure. Although complacent in his unseen role in the shadows of Isaac's life, he is truly Isaac's biggest supporter and the happiness that news of Isaac's success as an author brings to Leo is truly heartfelt by the reader.

Kraus develops these lessons subtly throughout the book. She does not come out and say explicitly these ideas, and yet the unspoken words are implied in the way that she develops, not only the characters, but the connection the her readers make with these characters. The ideas that she works with in this book (and these are only three out of many) will always be relevant and current. This book is not about a dystopia, or a social discretion. This book is about emotion and love, and no matter how our world changes and evolves, emotions are instinctive and necessary to human survival. Love, empathy, and emotion will always be felt, making this a book that readers will always be able to draw connections to.