The American novelist Paul Auster, author of works such as The New York Trilogy It is Mr Vertigo. The information was provided by The New York Timesto whom Jacki Lyden, a friend of the writer, confirmed that Auster died at home in New York, due to complications related to lung cancer.
Paul Benjamin Auster was born into a Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey, in February 1947. He studied at Columbia University – where he met his first wife, fellow writer Lydia Davis, with whom he had a son in 1977 – in the 1960s At the beginning of the following decade, he moved to Paris, one of the cities where his work became most famous.
He ended up finding a city in Brooklyn that he made almost as much his own as New Jersey, and which ended up serving as the backdrop for several books. “Paul Auster was ‘the’ Brooklyn novelist in the 1980s and 1990s,” writer Meghan O’Rourke told New York Times.
Themes such as chance, destiny and loss were central to several moments in his work. The writer even admitted that, in part, these themes mirrored real-life episodes. At the age of 14, for example, while climbing during a storm, he saw a boy die in front of him, struck by lightning. Regarding the episode, Auster even stated: “I think this has perhaps influenced my work more than any book I’ve ever read.”
His writing style was described, in 2010, by writer Joyce Carol Oates, as “highly stylized, eccentric in a peculiar way” with “narrators who were rarely reliable”, cites the TheGuardian.
“I’ve always tried to write what for me is beautiful, true and good. But I’m also interested in inventing new ways of telling stories. I wanted to turn everything inside out”, he considered at one point. His stories were written, above all, in pen. “Keyboards have always intimidated me,” he said, according to New York Times. “Writing has always had a tactile part for me. It’s a physical experience,” he explained.
Despite being North American, Paul Auster’s work became more famous in Europe. “Auster is a rock star in Paris,” said an article in the magazine new Yorkcited by Guardian. He was awarded the 2006 Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature, made a Commander of the French Order of Arts and Letters in 2007 and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In Portugal, Paul Auster has published a large part of his work, particularly novels, such as Mr Vertigo, Moon Palace, Music of Chance, Leviathan, The New York Trilogy, Timbuktu, The book of illusions, The madness of Brooklyn, The man in the darkness It is 4 3 2 1for which he was a finalist for the Booker Prize.
He also ventured into the world of cinema, having directed three films: The inner life of Martin Frost, 2007, which was partly shot in Portugal, Lulu on the Bridge (1998) and Blue Smoke (1995).
The last chapter of Paul Auster’s work, Baumgartnerwas released in October 2023. The book tells the story of a widowed septuagenarian professor dealing with the grief of loss.
Paul Auster is survived by his wife, fellow writer Siri Hustvedt, two daughters, Sophie and Janet Auster, and a grandson.
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