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Paul Auster

    February 3, 1947 – April 30, 2024

    Paul Auster is an author whose works explore the intricate weave of fate, identity, and chance. With masterful narrative skill, he crafts stories that often delve into themes of loss, memory, and the search for meaning in an absurd world. His writing is characterized by profound insights into the human psyche and existential reflections that compel readers to ponder the nature of reality and storytelling.

    Paul Auster
    Leviathan, English edition
    Burning Boy
    I Remember
    Baumgartner
    Collected Screenplays
    Groundwork
    • 2024

      Bloodbath Nation

      Mit Fotos von Spencer Ostrander

      • 192 pages
      • 7 hours of reading

      Dies ist Paul Austers sehr persönliche Abrechnung mit der Vergottung des Waffentragens in der amerikanischen Kultur und Gesellschaft. Er erzählt davon zunächst in biografischen Vignetten, beginnend bei den Spielzeugcolts der Kindheit und den Western im Fernsehen. Es folgen die ersten Einschläge im näheren Umfeld, der von der Großmutter erschossene Großvater – lange Zeit ein Familiengeheimnis, von dem Auster nur durch Zufall erfuhr. Von da aus geht er zurück in die amerikanische Geschichte und erklärt, warum die Waffe in der Hand des freien Bürgers in direkter Linie aus der Gewalt der Sklavenhaltergesellschaft hervorgegangen ist. Der Streit ums Waffentragen führt ins Zentrum der aktuellen Auseinandersetzungen um die Gestaltung des amerikanischen Gesellschaftssystems. Auster zeigt sich hier als ebenso polemischer wie klarsichtiger politischer Beobachter und Kommentator. Der Text wird begleitet von Fotos des US-Fotografen Spencer Ostrander – in ihrer Stille gespenstisch eindrückliche Schwarz-Weiß-Aufnahmen der Schauplätze bekannter Massaker.

      Bloodbath Nation
    • 2023

      BLOODBATH NATION is about the Epidemic that is tearing apart the fabric of American society.An Epidemic caused - not by Covid - but by Guns.Among its victims are men, women, teenagers, children, and even babies. The massacres have taken place in churches, schools, movie theatres, and at rock concerts. Auster establishes how America's love affair with guns goes all the way back to the arrival of the first British settlers - guns in hand - who used these guns to eradicate the Native Americans who occupied the country. This history of carnage continues to this day.Interwoven into the text are photographs taken by Spencer Ostrander of the locations of the mass killlngs - which serve as mute testaments to the lives that have been lost.Guns have become one of the issues dividing America today, but Auster doesn't take sides. The book is a plea for both sides to find a way of avoiding more death and grief. Accompanying Auster's text is a series of photographs of the locations of these mass killings. There are no bodies - only the empty spaces which stand as mute memorials to the lives that have been lost.

      Bloodbath Nation
    • 2023

      Baumgartner's life has been defined by his deep, abiding love for his wife, Anna. But now Anna is gone, and Baumgartner is embarking on his seventies whilst trying to live with her absence. Rich with compassion, wit and Auster's keen eye for beauty in the smallest, most transient episodes of ordinary life, 'Baumgartner' is a tender late masterpiece of the ache of memory. It asks: why do we find such meaning in certain moments, and forget others?

      Baumgartner
    • 2022

      On the eve of Christmas Eve, Tyler Kobe Nichols collapsed on the sidewalk, fatally wounded. His death at twenty-one marked another instance of senseless violence in America, receiving minimal coverage in the media. Yet, each tragedy unfolds a deeper narrative about the aftermath of loss, as Tyler's mother, Sherma Chambers, poignantly notes, a generational issue with no clear resolution. The project began with a misunderstanding when photographer Spencer Ostrander attended Tyler's funeral, mistakenly believing he was a gun violence victim. Instead, he met Sherma, leading to a collaboration that included Paul Auster, uniting strangers in shared sorrow. The Nichols/Chambers family's openness allows readers to witness their intimate grief following Tyler's murder. Their response includes establishing a foundation aimed at combating street violence through love, transforming their tragedy into a catalyst for societal change. This work invites readers to engage with the community's resilience amidst outrage and despair over the violence epidemic. It also offers a glimmer of hope, as the Long Live King Kobe Foundation, initiated by Sherma Chambers, will fund nonviolence initiatives to protect youth. Proceeds from this book will support the foundation's mission.

      Long Live King Kobe: Following the Murder of Tyler Kobe Nichols
    • 2022

      In Flammen

      Leben und Werk von Stephen Crane

      Paul Auster nimmt den Leser mit auf eine lebhafte Reise durch die kurzen 29 Jahre von Stephen Cranes Leben. Crane war der strahlende Stern der US-Literatur zur Jahrhundertwende, ein Frühvollendeter in jeder Hinsicht – wichtigster Vertreter des amerikanischen Naturalismus und Autor des legendären Bürgerkriegsromans «The Red Badge of Courage» («Die rote Tapferkeitsmedaille»). In den wenigen Jahren, die ihm vergönnt waren, verfasste er neben diesem ikonischen Roman ein reiches Werk aus Lyrik, Kurzgeschichten und Novellen und führte ein abenteuerliches, ja fiebriges Leben u. a. als Kriegskorrespondent im Spanisch-Amerikanischen und im Griechisch-Türkischen Krieg. Er erlitt Schiffbruch vor der kubanischen Küste, wurde in eine skandalöse Liebesaffäre verwickelt, die ihn zwang, seine Heimat zu verlassen, bereiste mehrere Kontinente, wurde in Kriegseinsätzen beschossen – all dies vor dem Hintergrund des pulsierenden, sich rapide wandelnden Lebens im blühenden Industriezeitalter. Und so ist Austers liebevoll genaues und detailreiches Porträt des Schriftstellers Crane auch eines seiner Zeit und der Welt im Fin de Siècle des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts am Übergang zum zwanzigsten.

      In Flammen
    • 2022

      Not long after, Auster received a letter from Coetzee, suggesting they begin exchanging letters on a regular basis and, 'God willing, strike sparks off each other'. Here and Now is the result of that proposal: an epistolary dialogue between two great writers who became great friends.

      Here and Now
    • 2021

      'Exhilarating.' Joyce Carol Oates, Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year'Sharp-eyed and revealing.' The New Yorker'Brilliant .

      Burning Boy
    • 2020

      Groundwork

      • 656 pages
      • 23 hours of reading
      4.4(17)Add rating

      This updated nonfiction collection features significant works by Paul Auster, including his influential piece, The Invention of Solitude. Auster, a Man Booker Prize finalist, delves into themes of solitude, identity, and the human experience, offering profound insights and reflections. The collection showcases his unique narrative style and philosophical depth, making it a compelling read for those interested in contemporary thought and personal exploration.

      Groundwork
    • 2020

      Collected Screenplays

      • 512 pages
      • 18 hours of reading

      Paul Auster's novels have earned him the reputation as 'one of America's most spectacularly inventive writers.' He has also brought this sense of invention to the art of screenwriting, producing Smoke, Blue in the Face, Lulu on the Bridge and The Inner Life of Martin Frost. Smoke tells the story of a novelist, a cigar store manager and a black teenager who unexpectedly cross paths. Blue in the Face is a largely improvised comedy directly inspired by Smoke. In Lulu on the Bridge, jazz musician Izzy Maurer is accidently hit with a bullet during a performance in a New York club, propelling him on a strange and frightening journey. The Inner Life of Martin Frost follows the unsettling experiences that befall a writer who borrows a friend's country house. The volume also contains production notes, as well as interviews with Paul Auster about his work in film.

      Collected Screenplays
    • 2020

      White Spaces

      • 128 pages
      • 5 hours of reading

      "White Spaces gathers the poetry and prose of Paul Auster from various small-press books issued throughout the seventies. These early poetic works are crucial for understanding the evolution of Auster's writing. Taut, lyrical, and always informed by a powerful and subtle music, his poems begin with basics-a swallow's egg, stones, roots, thistle, "the glacial rose"--And push language to the breaking point. As Robert Creeley wrote, "The enduring power of these early poems is their moving address to a world all too elusive, too fragmented, and too bitterly transient." Auster's poems are grounded in a physical utterance that is at once an exploration of the mind and of the world. This collection begins with compact verse fragments from Spokes (originally published in Poetry, 1971) and goes through Auster's marvelous later collections including Wall Writing (The Figures, 1976), Facing the Music (Parenthèse, 1979), and White Spaces (Station Hill, 1980)"-- Provided by publisher

      White Spaces