Paul Auster, author of the "New York Trilogy", has died at the age of 77
Paul Auster, the celebrated American author of the New York Trilogy, has died at the age of 77.
Auster, born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1947, has had a long career not only as a celebrated novelist but also as an essayist, translator, screenwriter and poet whose work has been published in more than 40 languages.
Many media outlets reported that Auster's death was confirmed by his girlfriend and fellow writer Jackie Layden.
Auster began translating the works of French writers when he moved to France after graduating from Columbia University in 1970. At the same time, he began publishing his own works in American magazines.
Widespread acclaim came after the publication of The New York Trilogy, a series of experimental detective stories, in 1987. His other bestselling novels include "4 3 2 1", "Sunset Park", "The Book of Illusions" and "Moon Palace".
Last year, Auster's wife, writer Siri Hustvedt, found out he had cancer. Sharing the news on Instagram, she said he was diagnosed in December 2022, that he was undergoing treatment and that she was living in "cancer country".
Months later, Hustvedt posted a photo of herself and Auster, with whom she had lived for more than four decades, and reported on his condition. "Watching Paul, I realized what grace under pressure looks like. Steadfast and unflappable, with an unflinching humor, he has made this time of his illness, which has lasted almost a year, beautiful, not ugly", she wrote.
Much of Auster's fiction deals with the idea of the self and often presents it in a veiled incarnation, leading many critics to suggest that he uses autobiography. Another theme of his work has been the question of chance and fate. In the novel " 4 3 2 1 ", published in 2017, the protagonist experienced four alternative lives.
The early experience of how life can change in an instant has had a major influence on Auster and his writing. In an interview with the BBC before the 2012 publication of his autobiographical work The Winter Diary, Auster said that chance and coincidence are what he called "the mechanics of reality".
He explained, "Unexpected things happen to everyone all the time and, in fact, most of life is random. There are very few immutable facts. I suppose the only ones are that once you are born you are destined to die, and the rest is a matter of chance".
Oster goes on to tell how, at the age of 14, he was hiking with a group of 20 boys when they were caught in a thunderstorm. One of his peers was struck by lightning and died.
"It absolutely changed my life", he said. "I think about it every day. It never goes away. It was my first big lesson about the capriciousness of life, how unstable everything is, how quickly things can change. From one blink of an eye to the next, the world becomes a completely different place.
"Here was a 14-year-old boy, happy, alive, and moments later he was dead".
According to him, this episode affected his entire life. "I haven't lived through wars, pestilence, ... But that's my military experience. I think soldiers go through things like that all the time. I was young, and it made a huge impression on me, so if you want to talk about my philosophy, that's the core of what's going on".
Auster, who lived in Brooklyn, New York, received many honors, including the Spanish Prince of Asturias Literary Award in 2006. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Chevalier of the French Order of Arts and Letters.
In a message on the X website, the Booker Prize account paid tribute to Auster, writing, "We are very saddened to learn of the death of Booker Prize nominee Paul Auster, whose work touched readers and influenced writers around the world, and whose generosity was felt in as many corners. We extend our condolences to his wife Siri Hustvedt and his family".