“He had slept next to her for thirty-six years, and the mattress felt different without her weight, however slight, and without the rhythm of her breath the dark had no measure. There were times he woke feeling cold from the lack of the heat that once came from between her thighs and behind her knees. He might have even called her, if he could have momentarily forgotten that he already knew everything she could possibly say.”

American author

Nicole Krauss is an American novelist known for fiction that has reached a wide international readership. She is best known for her four novels, Man Walks into a Room (2002), The History of Love (2005), Great House (2010) and Forest Dark (2017). Her work has been translated into 35 languages. Krauss has also had fiction published in The New Yorker, Harper's, and Esquire. She was included in Granta's Best American Novelists Under 40, and her stories have appeared in several editions of The Best American Short Stories, including 2003, 2008, 2019 and 2021.