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1-Page Summary of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Oskar Schell is a nine-year-old boy who lost his father in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He has been sad ever since, but he’s hiding it from everyone. On the day of the attacks, Oskar’s dad called five times and left messages on their answering machine. The fifth time was after the towers had fallen, so Oskar didn’t answer because he thought something bad had happened to his dad. They never recovered his body and buried an empty casket at his funeral. Now that Oskar is older, he realizes how much pain this caused him and wants answers about what really happened to his father that day. His mother has started seeing another man named Ron, which makes Oskar angry because she seems to be moving on with her life without him. To cope with all of these feelings, Oskar invents things like “The Key Project” as a way to deal with stress. One night while looking through boxes in his closet for a vase he dropped, Oskar finds an envelope labeled “Black” containing a key inside. After some research into its history, he decides to visit every person whose last name is Black in New York City in order find out where this key fits.

The book is also about Oskar’s grandparents. Thomas, his grandfather, was in love with Anna who died during the bombing of Dresden. He stopped speaking and started writing one-line sentences on pieces of paper to communicate with others. His grandmother married him after she met him at a bakery where he worked as a baker. In her letters, she tells another version of their meeting. She says that Thomas asked her to pose for a sculpture he wanted to make while they were still dating each other and not engaged yet because she looked like his dead lover Anna. They had sex afterwards and got married; however, they both knew it wasn’t right because they didn’t feel any emotions towards each other except guilt over having sex before marriage but neither one could leave the relationship due to being afraid of being alone again after losing someone close to them previously (Anna). After Grandma became pregnant, Thomas left for Germany without saying goodbye even though Grandma tried several times to stop him from running away by telling him how much he meant to her or trying to convince him that it would be better if they stayed together than if he went back there all by himself since nobody else was waiting for him there anymore either since everybody else had already moved on with their lives too so what did he have left back there anyway?

Oskar begins his search for the key by meeting people named Black. He meets Abby, who is an epidemiologist and lives in Greenwich Village, but she doesn’t know anything about the key. Oskar eventually finds Mr. Black, a man who has lived above him for 23 years since his wife’s death. Mr. Black is very wise and hard of hearing; he hasn’t left his apartment or turned on his hearing aids in twenty-three years because of it. Oskar convinces him to turn them back on after inviting him to join the quest for the key with him, which he does reluctantly at first before becoming more involved as time goes on, encouraging Oskar to get over his fear of public transportation along the way. After they meet Ruth Black (who lives in The Empire State Building), Mr West tells Oskar that he’s done searching for keys with her help and encourages him to continue alone from there if he wants too badly enough.

After 9/11, Thomas returns to New York with the desire to try and live again. His grandmother at first doesn’t want him to stay or leave, but she eventually allows him to stay in her guest room. She makes him promise never to let Oskar know he’s there. After Thomas sees Oskar for the first time, he starts following him around from a distance. Mr. Black eventually confronts Thomas and tries to protect Oskar by telling him that he should be with his son instead of staying with Grandma. Not long after, Oskar finds Thomas in Grandma’s apartment and assumes him to be Grandma’s mysterious renter (Mr Black). He tells Thomas about the key left by his father before dying as well as playing back messages on an answering machine left behind by his dad telling stories about The World Trade Center towers falling down while describing them like buildings made out of sand castles blown away into grains of sand just like how people can change so much they become unrecognizable over time even though they may still look exactly like themselves physically.Thomas tells Oskar if ever needed anything that all he has got do is toss stones at the window which will surely get noticed by someone who cares for you very deeply because it was this way I got noticed when I needed help most when my life was falling apart,and then later on one day when things were particularly tough between me and my grandma we both decided that it would only make sense for us both go our separate ways but right before we did something amazing happened…