Who

Krauss is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, Man Walks Into a Room and The History of Love. She's also the wife (and baby mama) of lit wunderkind Jonathan Safran Foer.

Backstory

Krauss was raised in a wealthy home in Old Westbury, Long Island—her father's family made a fortune manufacturing components for the defense industry—and headed off to Stanford and Oxford before dabbling with poetry. She started work on her first novel, Man Walks Into a Room, at the age of 25; when it was published in 2003 Susan Sontag declared: "Nicole Krauss, with this remarkably felt, sharp-witted debut novel, strides into the forecourt of American letters." Krauss followed up with her second novel, The History of Love, in 2005.

Of note

The History of Love, for which Krauss received an impressive $500,000 in a two-book deal from Norton, was a major commercial and critical success, although there were a few dissenters such as Laura Miller, who in The New York Times Book Review reproached the author's "earnest A-student striving." The novel is being adapted for the screen in a Warner Brothers movie directed by Alfonso Cuarón, the filmmaker behind Y Tu Mamá También.

Personal

Krauss gave birth to a son, Sasha, in February 2006 and lives with her child and husband, reviled/adored novelist Jonathan Safran Foer in a lavish, triple-width 7,000 square-foot Park Slope house complete with a garden for their Great Dane mix, George. The townhouse cost $6.75 million.