Oskar Schell, living in New York, is nine years old and precocious (his interests range from astrophysics to playing the tambourine), and all his intelligence is called into play when his father dies in the destruction of the World Trade Center. Left with an envelope containing a key and a one-word clue, Oskar tries to find out what door the key opens. In the end, he is successful, after a city-wide odyssey that also includes a mysterious man in Germany, Oskars grandmother, a production of HAMLET at his school, and the astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. Oskars tale is supplemented with the musings of some of the other characters, including his grandfather, whose description of his survival of the bombing of Dresden is an unforgettable chapter. Jonathan Safran Foer enriches his intriguing novel with the very postmodern device of illustrations--intriguing in themselves--that illuminate the story.