By EFE
May 1, 2024, 01:28 AM EDT
The acclaimed American novelist Paul Auster, author of a prolific work that includes the ‘New York Trilogy’, ‘Brooklyn Follies’ and ‘The Invention of Solitude’, died on April 30 at the age of 77, according to The New York Times.
Paul Auster died at his home in Brooklyn, New York, due to lung cancer. He is survived by his wife, a daughter and a grandson.
Brooklyn the setting of his novels
Born into a Jewish family of Austrian descent in 1947 in Newark, New Jersey, Auster would later make Brooklyn his home and the setting for his novels, especially in the 1980s and 1990s.
In all his works he built literary labyrinths, like Russian dolls or matryoshkas, in which he mixed fiction, reality and autobiography, and with which he captured millions of readers around the world.
In addition to novels, his prolific work translated into more than 40 languages includes poetry, stories, essays and theater and film scripts (some directed by him).
Auster studied at Columbia University – the epicenter of the current student protests against the war in Israel – and participated in the 1968 demonstrations against the Vietnam War.
He debuted with “The Invention of Solitude”
After finishing university he settled in Paris, where according to New York Magazine the New York writer is a ‘rock star’.
He debuted as a writer in 1982 with ‘The Invention of Solitude’, which revolves around the sudden death of his father, but true fame would come with ‘New York Trilogy’, a series of novels that includes ‘City of Glass’. , ‘Ghosts’ and ‘The Locked Room’.
Amid the concern of his millions of followers about his state of health in recent years, the American Paul Auster published ‘Baumgartner’ in 2023.
It is about an eccentric and tender Philosophy professor immersed in pain over the loss of his great love. A story about chance, memory and grief from the New York author.
His son died at 44 years old
His life was recently touched by tragedy, when his son Daniel Auster, who was 44, died of an overdose. The writer’s son had been charged with the death of his 10-month-old daughter Ruby – Paul Auster’s granddaughter.
According to him, he consumed heroin when he fell asleep and when he woke up the little girl was dead from fentanyl and heroin poisoning.
In 2006, the writer received the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature. In his speech he stated: “I have spent my life striking up conversations with people I have never seen, with people I will never meet, and I hope to continue doing so until the day I breathe my last breath.”
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