A young American Jew, Safran Foer, arrives in the Ukraine with a photograph of a woman who, fifty years ago, saved his grandfather from the Nazis. A Ukrainian translator and tour guide, Alex Perchov, with bizarre and mangled English, is set to guide him. He takes him to the village of Trachimbrod, where they hope to find some clues.

The book is about memory and identity – “it is about the past being a place as well as a time.” But it is also very funny. “At the heart of Safran Foer’s narrative beats the classic road-trip novel, replete with unlikely buddies. Think of a Jewish-American version of Don Quixote,” writes author and critic Judy Bolton-Fasman, getting to the heart of the novel.

For Alex, to sleep is to “manufacture Zs,” to have sex is “be carnal,” good is “premium,” nearby is “proximal,” and difficult is “rigid.” His mother would have to be “manufacturing Zs”, not knowing that Alexander is desperate to “get carnal” with a girl.

One of the most promising debuts in America, it became known for the manner in which it switches between two autobiographical stories of Jonathan and Alex, both approaching the same narrative from two points of view. However, it is not difficult to follow as it reveals itself slowly, in parts, taking the readers along and rewarding them with pleasure and surprise.

The novel was adapted into a film of the same name starring Elijah Wood and Eugene Hütz in 2005. It won the National Jewish Book Award and the Guardian First Book Award.

Published in 2002.