The book, which is set in New York City and Israel, is dedicated to Krauss's father[nb 1] and its title is derived from the opening lines of Dante's Inferno, as translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

[nb 2][1] Its chief characters are lawyer Jules Epstein, who is wealthy, divorced and retired, and Nicole, an internationally acclaimed novelist and mother of two sons who is in a failing marriage.

[3] Francesca Segal, writing in the Financial Times, said that the novel's "tale of two lives" explores "ideas of identity and belonging – and the lure of the Tel Aviv Hilton".

Aspects of 'Forest Dark' will be familiar to readers of Krauss’s earlier books 'The History of Love' and 'Great House,' including a preoccupation with the writing process and a revelatory take on the ties that bind people separated by generations.

Its reviewer, Douglas Kennedy, said: "Forest Dark, which comes seven years after [Krauss's] last book, Great House, is that rare species: a novel of ideas in which the cerebral never impinges on the human mess that underscores the external and internal landscapes of a riveting narrative...