Austers neuer Roman ist vor dem Hintergrund der US Wahlen im Jahr 2000 angelegt und erzählt von Nathan und Tom, Onkel und Neffe, aber vor allem von dem Stadtteil, in dem sie beide leben, Brooklyn und seinen Bewohnern.
Paul Auster`s remarkable new novel "The Brooklyn Follies" sets against the backdrop of the contested US election of 2000 and tells the story of Nathan and Tom, an uncle and nephew double-act. One in remission from lung cancer, divorced, and estranged from his only daughter, the other hiding away from his once-promising academic career, and life in general. Having accidentally ended up in the same Brooklyn neighbourhood, they discover a community teeming with life and passion. When Lucy, the little girl who refuses to speak, comes into their lives there is suddenly a bridge from their pasts that may offer them the possibility of redemption. Filled with stories and characters, mystery and fraud, these lives intertwine and become bound together as Auster brilliantly explores the wider terrain of contemporary America - a crucible of broken dreams and of human folly.
Paul Auster`s remarkable new novel "The Brooklyn Follies" sets against the backdrop of the contested US election of 2000 and tells the story of Nathan and Tom, an uncle and nephew double-act. One in remission from lung cancer, divorced, and estranged from his only daughter, the other hiding away from his once-promising academic career, and life in general. Having accidentally ended up in the same Brooklyn neighbourhood, they discover a community teeming with life and passion. When Lucy, the little girl who refuses to speak, comes into their lives there is suddenly a bridge from their pasts that may offer them the possibility of redemption. Filled with stories and characters, mystery and fraud, these lives intertwine and become bound together as Auster brilliantly explores the wider terrain of contemporary America - a crucible of broken dreams and of human folly.
Paul Auster, 1947 als Nachkomme eingewanderter österreichischer Juden in Newark, New Jersey geboren, studierte Anglistik und vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft an der Columbia University New York (B.A. und M.A.) und fuhr danach als Matrose auf einem Öltanker zur See. 1971 - 74 lebte er in Frankreich, hauptsächlich in Paris. Nach seiner Rückkehr in die USA nahm er einen Lehrauftrag an der Columbia University an und arbeitete zusätzlich als Übersetzer französischer Autoren (Blanchot, Bouchet, Dupin, Joubert, Mallarmé, Sartre) sowie als Herausgeber französischer Literatur in amerikanischen Verlagen. Paul Auster lebt in Brooklyn, New York, ist mit der Schriftstellerin Siri Hustvedt verheiratet und hat zwei Kinder. Er erhielt Stipendien der National Endowment for the Arts (1977 für Lyrik, 1983 für Prosa), den France Culture Prix Etranger (1988) und den Morton Dauwen Zabel Award (1990). 2006 erhielt er den Prinz-von-Asturien-Preis in der Sparte Literatur.
© Beowulf Sheehan