Great House by Nicole Krauss

 

These interconnected stories center around a Chilean poet, Daniel Varsky and his desk.  He has been in New York but is returning home and offers his furniture to a young novelist whose relationship has just broken up and who is in need of furnishings.  The desk is huge and stately, full of drawers and cubbyholes.  The novelist is intimidated by it at first but soon can't imagine working anywhere else.  Years later, a young woman contacts her and asks for the desk back, stating that she is the poet's daughter.

The desk moves from New York to London to Jerusalem through people related or connected to Daniel.  Daniel himself is one of the disappeared of Chile, his opposition to the government his death warrant.  Along the way, the reader learns the secrets of those who house the desk for a while as it passes from person to person.  

This book was a National Book Award finalist.  Krauss has a deft hand at character building and the connections between those portrayed are interesting.  As the secrets are revealed the reader is pulled into many different stories and locales.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.