Paul Auster was an American novelist known for his postmodernist approach to fiction. He authored 34 books, including the acclaimed New York Trilogy, Leviathan, and 4 3 2 1. Auster received many awards, including the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature (2006) and the Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2007).
Paul Auster was born in Newark, New Jersey. He grew up in a Jewish middle-class family. Auster attended Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey. When he was 14, a nearby boy was struck by lightning and died while at a summer camp. It was a significant early experience. This event profoundly impacted Auster and recurrently influenced his themes of chance and coincidence.
Auster earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.
After university, Auster moved to Paris in the early 1970s, where he translated French literature and wrote essays and poems. He returned to the U.S. in 1974, married Lydia Davis, and they had a son, Daniel. The couple separated in 1979. In 1981, Auster published his first significant work, a memoir titled The Invention of Solitude.
His breakthrough came with The City of Glass (1985), the first book of The New York Trilogy, which challenged traditional narratives with its complex interplay of identity and reality. Over the following decades, Auster wrote numerous novels, including Moon Palace (1989) and The Music of Chance (1990), which dealt with existentialism, identity, and human experience.
Auster also engaged in filmmaking, scripting Smoke (1995), which won him the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay.
Reflecting on his writing in a 1995 essay, Auster remarked, "If there is a pencil in your pocket, there is a good chance that one day you’ll feel tempted to start using it."
His later works continued to delve into personal and philosophical themes, such as in 4 3 2 1 (2017), a novel exploring four parallel lives of one character.
Paul Auster passed away in 2024 at age 77 due to complications from lung cancer at his Brooklyn home, survived by his second wife, Siri Hustvedt, and their daughter, Sophie.
Photo credit: Lotte Hansen
