{"product_id":"the-scrapbook-isbn-9780593701904","title":"The Scrapbook","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the award-winning author of \u003ci\u003eRed Comet\u003c\/i\u003e: \u003ci\u003eThe Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath\u003c\/i\u003e, a stunning debut novel: the story of an intense first love haunted by history and family memory, inspired by the startling WWII scrapbook of Clark’s own grandfather, hidden in an attic until after his death\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“An ambitious, stirring debut.” —\u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“An elegant, unsettling novel about the burden of history and the illusions of love.” —Sana Krasikov, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Patriots\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe traumas of the past and the aftershocks of fascism echo and reverberate through the present in this story of a lifechanging seduction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHarvard, 1996. Anna is about to graduate when she falls hard for Christoph, a visiting German student. Captivated by his beauty and intelligence, she follows him to Germany, where charming squares and grand facades belie the nation’s recent history and the war’s destruction. Christoph condemns his country’s actions but remains cryptic about the part his own grandfather played. Anna, meanwhile, cannot forget the photos taken by her American GI grandfather at the end of the war, preserved in a scrapbook only she has seen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs Anna travels back and forth to Germany to deepen her relationship with the elusive Christoph, her perspective is powerfully interrupted by chapters that follow both of their grandfathers during the war. One witnesses the plight of Holocaust victims in the days after liberation and helps capture Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, while the other fights for Nazi Germany. Their fragmented stories haunt Anna and her lover two generations later—and may still tear them apart.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNot a “World War Two novel” in the traditional sense, \u003ci\u003eThe Scrapbook\u003c\/i\u003e delivers a consuming tale of first love, laced with a backstory of dark family legacies and historical conscience.\u003cb\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e’s Best Books of the Year\u003cbr\u003eOne of Lit Hub’s Favorite Books of 2025\u003cbr\u003eOne of The Millions’ Most Anticipated 2025 Books\u003cbr\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003eThe Irish Examiner\u003c\/i\u003e's \"Best Books of the Year\"\u003cbr\u003eOne of the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e' 30 Must-Read Books for Summer\u003cbr\u003eOne of the \u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e's Best Summer 2025 Books\u003cbr\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e's Best Books of June 2025\u003cbr\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003eForeign Policy\u003c\/i\u003e’s “Novels We’re Reading in June” \u003cbr\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003eThe Herald\u003c\/i\u003e's Best New Books to Read\u003cbr\u003eOne of Zibby Owens' Summer Reads Pick\u003cbr\u003eOne of\u003ci\u003e BookPage\u003c\/i\u003e's Top Ten July Reads\u003cbr\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/i\u003e's Best Books of the Week\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“An ambitious, stirring debut.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Clark grapples with history, latching onto inspiration from her grandfather’s World War II scrapbook. This intense story explores first love between American and German university students who must uncover and reconcile the past to forge a future” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Clark uses her first novel to explore a highly literary and highly troubled relationship. [\u003ci\u003eThe Scrapbook\u003c\/i\u003e] is at once a rich historical novel and a philosophical study of how much influence past generations have on our affections.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Immersive. . . Clark is interrogating whether past misdeeds implicate future generations—and whether they should.” \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e—The Washington Post\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Heather Clark writes with a rare empathy. . . . In her elegant, calmly unsettling debut novel, Clark illustrates how the cold shadow of German history bleeds constantly into the present, even in the most intimate spheres. . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Scrapbook\u003c\/i\u003e is ostensibly a love story, or, rather, a story of transatlantic obsession. It is also an ethical meditation on memory, complicity and the psychological tremors that can affect our lives decades after the events that prompted them—events that we might not even have been alive to experience.” \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Times Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Phenomenal. . . a unique blend of literary and historical fiction as well as a penetrating exploration of philosophy, art, historical responsibility and guilt in the context of war. . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Scrapbook\u003c\/i\u003e is worthy of reading and rereading as Clark serves up romance, history and political philosophy in ways that could hardly be more relevant.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What a novel. . . . Clark has achieved an impressive feat in this beautiful and powerful novel examining the nature of intergenerational trauma, inherited guilt and all-consuming love.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Jewish Chronicle \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Clark, in prose at the same time richly philosophical and light of touch, accomplishes a double feat. She has written both an aching love story and an incisive examination of the politics of memory.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Finely wrought. . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Scrapbook \u003c\/i\u003eis a fascinating tangle of yearning, history, and legacy.” \u003cb\u003e—Shelf Awareness\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A full and interesting story of the generational reverberations of the Holocaust. It is a mediation on what it means to be a good person in the face of a national crime; something our own children will no doubt be thinking about in years to come.” \u003cb\u003e—Literary Hub\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“The Scrapbook\u003c\/i\u003e is an incredibly smart novel, with an intricate and perfectly paced depiction of a delicate and intense relationship. It’s as if a Sally Rooney novel merged with Richard Linklater’s film, \u003ci\u003eBefore Sunrise\u003c\/i\u003e, with forays into history and humanity further deepening the experience.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBookList\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Scrap­book \u003c\/i\u003ecrack­les with the inten­si­ty of meet­ing one’s intel­lec­tu­al match — the debates, the dis­cov­ery, and, of course, the books. . . . Sen­tence by sen­tence, Clark builds Anna and Cristoph’s dynam­ic — sexy, slight­ly masochis­tic, and always propul­sive. Her reserved, ele­gant prose nails the rend­ing, intox­i­cat­ing nau­sea of first love with­out being cloy­ing. To fall in love is to shift from youth­ful naïveté toward adulthood’s cloudi­er com­pli­ca­tions. Clark treats this rite as a cere­bral expe­ri­ence as much as it is phys­i­cal.” \u003cb\u003e—Jewish Book Council\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[\u003ci\u003eThe Scrapbook\u003c\/i\u003e] examines the moral implications of the past for those living in the present. . . . Anna and Christophe's restlessly intelligent conversations raise juicy questions about the extent to which individuals are complicit with a nation′s history.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[\u003ci\u003eThe Scrapbook\u003c\/i\u003e] offer[s] a flying tour of literary representations of the Holocaust and its legacy—a lightly annotated reading list that includes fiction writers such as Tadeusz Borowski and W. G. Sebald—as well as a meditation on the cost of political crimes to a nation’s trustworthiness and honor, even generations later.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“It’s a wonderful novel; highly literary, yet page turning. . . . . It’s the sort of book you press on everyone you know, and spend hours discussing, once they’ve read it too.” \u003cb\u003e—Sue Leonard, \u003ci\u003eIrish Examiner\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Tender and poignant. . . . A fluid, fast-paced and compelling read, and a look at WWII from a different perspective” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eHistorical Novels Society\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Scrapbook\u003c\/i\u003e weaves a fictional tale of first love, family, and historical memory from a real-life World War II scrapbook.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eForeign Policy\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Clark’s first novel combines historical fiction with a thoughtful examination of a classic rite of passage for many young adults: falling in unrequited love. . . . Clark deftly interweaves Anna and Christoph’s interactions with glimpses of their grandfathers’ lives during the war, adding depth to the story. . . . Clark is at her best.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Heather Clark’s [\u003ci\u003eThe Scrapbook\u003c\/i\u003e] is gripping from the start, written with confident concision and directness.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Herald \u003c\/i\u003e(Scotland)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The Pulitzer finalist enthralls in \u003ci\u003eThe Scrapbook\u003c\/i\u003e, her passionate and perceptive first novel.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e (cover and starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Inspired by the collected memorabilia in her grandfather’s scrapbook, Heather Clark delivers a masterfully compelling historical novel.” \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Cityview\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Literature continues and continues to grapple with the atrocities of the Holocaust—an unprecedented event in modern history. \u003ci\u003eThe Scapbook\u003c\/i\u003e, a fine novel, is in the long line of novels taking an unflinching look at that painful episode in history.”\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e —Governance Now \u003c\/i\u003e(India) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Heather Clark’s \u003ci\u003eThe Scrapbook\u003c\/i\u003e is a masterpiece. This beautifully crafted, quietly devastating love story reminds us of the epic impact of the Second World War across continents and through generations, its scars perhaps most poignantly felt in the intimate interactions between two solitary people.” \u003cb\u003e—Rebecca Donner,\u003ci\u003e New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eAll the Frequent Troubles of Our Days\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Through an exquisitely observed love affair, Clark explores how the Nazis' lingering legacy can still haunt the lives of those born long after the war. A stunningly good novel.” \u003cb\u003e—Julia Boyd, \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Village in the Third Reich\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Ingeborg Bachmann once asked, ‘When will the war be over?’ \u003ci\u003eThe Scrapbook \u003c\/i\u003eoffers an answer to this timeless question in a work of searing tenderness. An intimate portrait of youthful romance, it meticulously captures the melancholy inheritance of a generation trying to find their place amidst the rubble of the past. Clark reminds us that we’re never as far from history as we’d like to imagine and just how much we must give up in order to move on. A stunning quiet work you won’t be able to put down.” \u003cb\u003e—Samantha Rose Hill, author of \u003ci\u003eHannah Arendt \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eWhat Remains: The Collected Poems of Hannah Arendt\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Historical fiction strikes a complicated balance, between a need to recreate with some accuracy events in the past while at the same time communicating the relevance of those facts to the present. Heather Clark situates a contemporary love story in the shadow of—and with capacious insight into—German history both during and immediately after the Second World War. Clark navigates difficult conceptual ground with remarkable ease, making the complex legacy of the war appreciable to readers in the present.” \u003cb\u003e—Matthew Longo, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Picnic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“An elegant, unsettling novel about the burden of history and the illusions of love. With a biographer’s eye for detail and a novelist’s grasp of human frailty, The Scrapbook traces the fault lines between past and present, between nations and individuals, revealing how history lingers—not in grand narratives, but in intimate entanglements.” \u003cb\u003e—Sana Krasikov, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Patriots\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A swiftly-moving, molecularly perceptive, singular portrait of intoxicating young love. Clark captures the psychological nuances and emotional currents of two youthful intellects wrestling with the weight of history and questions of legacy, moral responsibility, and the blinders and dissonance of a complicated romance.” \u003cb\u003e—Aube Rey Lescure, author of \u003ci\u003eRiver East\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eRiver West\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eHEATHER CLARK is the author of \u003ci\u003eRed Comet\u003c\/i\u003e: \u003ci\u003eThe Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath\u003c\/i\u003e, one of the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e’s Ten Best Books of 2021, as well as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e Book Prize, and a “Book of the Year” in \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eLiterary Hub\u003c\/i\u003e, and elsewhere. Her recent awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, an NYPL Cullman Center Fellowship, the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism, the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize, an NEH Public Scholars Fellowship, and a Leon Levy Biography Fellowship. Clark’s work has appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHarvard Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePoetry\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAir Mail\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eLiterary Hub\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePN Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement,\u003c\/i\u003e and elsewhere. She holds a doctorate in English literature from Oxford University and lives outside New York City.","brand":"Pantheon","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302091018469,"sku":"NP9780593701904","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780593701904.jpg?v=1767741368","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-scrapbook-isbn-9780593701904","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}