How It All Goes Down
- The third chapter, unlike the first two, is in third-person narration. It tells us about Zvi Litvinoff, the author of The History of Love.
- Most information about Zvi comes from the introduction to his book, which was written by his wife, Rosa.
- The lovebirds met outside a café in 1951. Litvinoff was much older than her.
- They began dating. Only after they became serious did Litvinoff begin reading her passages from the book he was writing, which would become The History of Love.
- It was originally written in Yiddish. Rosa, devoted lady she was, helped translate it into Spanish.
- The original Yiddish manuscript was destroyed when their house flooded.
- Zvi Litvinoff died in 1978.
- The History of Love was originally published in a small printing of only two thousand copies. One of these copies ended up in a bookstore in Chile.
- One day, the bookstore owner picked it up and read a chapter called "The Age of Silence" about the time before language existed, when people just communicated through gestures. This allowed them to express themselves more freely, but there were a bunch of misunderstandings too.
- This is why we still gesture when we speak today (so now you know).
- The bookstore owner placed the book in the window, where it was eventually purchased by one David Singer—Alma's father.