Baumgartner

And then it started, little by little it started, until they were married five years later and his real life began.

The life of Sy Baumgartner – noted author, and soon-to-be retired philosophy professor – has been defined by his deep, abiding love for his wife. Now Anna is gone, and Baumgartner is trying to live with her absence. But Anna's voice is everywhere still, in every spiral of memory and reminiscence, in each recalled episode of the passionate forty years they shared.

Rich with feeling, wit and an eye for beauty in the smallest, most transient episodes of ordinary life, Baumgartner is a luminous work – a tender final masterpiece from one of the world's greatest writers.

About the Author

Paul Auster (1947–2024) was the bestselling author of 4 3 2 1, Sunset Park, The Book of Illusions, Moon Palace and The New York Trilogy. He and Spencer Ostrander collaborated on Bloodbath Nation. In 2006, he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and was a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His work was translated into more than forty languages. His final novel, Baumgartner, was published in November 2023. 

Reviews

"This mesmerising novel keeps us in thrall throughout as a writer tries to reassemble his life after loss and love. It is intense, sad and, at the same time, full of joy." —Bernard MacLaverty

"A super-abundantly gifted, big-hearted novelist." —Ian McEwan

"Winningly farcical and fast-moving, it's a terrific opening, a cascading comedy of perpetually interrupted thought." ―Observer

"Auster has always been enchanted by memory, chance, echo. Here, the charge of that obsession electrifies." ―Financial Times

"Passionate, gentle, wise ... A literary voice for the ages." ―Guardian

"One of the great American prose stylists of our time." ―New York Times

Dimensions: 12.8 x 1.5 x 19.8 cm