“Maybe the first time you saw her you were ten. She was standing in the sun scratching her legs. Or tracing letters in the dirt with a stick. Her hair was being pulled. Or she was pulling someone's hair. And a part of you was drawn to her, and a part of you resisted--wanting to ride off on your bicycle, kick a stone, remain uncomplicated. In the same breath you felt the strength of a man, and a self-pity that made you feel small and hurt. Part of you thought: Please don't look at me. If you don't, I can still turn away. And part of you thought: Look at me.”

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.