Love Writ Large

At fifteen, falling in love can push everything else out of view, and a few weeks can feel like years of experience. In Love Writ Large, Navid Kermani portrays those feelings, from the burst of emotion in a first kiss to the devastating loss of a first breakup.

While his teenage protagonist is absorbed in these feelings, Germany is caught up in the Cold War. Even the personal dramas of a small-town grammar school fall under the shadow of the nuclear arms race. Kermani brings in these wider tensions without weakening the intensity of first love.

He also places the boy's struggles within the stories and lives of many Arabic and Persian mystics. The result is a timeless tale about the ways love, loss and risk weigh on everyday life.