Astor was born to Jewish immigrants in Newark in 1947 and dreamed of becoming a writer from an early age. He studied literature in New York and France and initially supported himself through teaching assignments and translation work.
After the failure of her first marriage, she hit her stride in the mid-1980s with the “New York Trilogy” — three loosely connected detective stories titled “City of Glass,” “Slaughter Shadow” and “Behind Closed Doors.” He later became the best-selling author of “Moon Over Manhattan,” “Mr. Vertigo” and “The Book of Illusions.”
Auster's characters, often influenced by his own life story, are eccentric, broken characters. They search for themselves and lose themselves in dark recesses and obscure corners. Unexpected, random events and fantastic twists shape their existence and create philosophical reflections on art and culture, identity, life and death.
His books were translated into dozens of languages, and he was more popular in Europe than in his native country. Astor once said he was “obsessed” with writing. “For me, writing is not a free act, it's a question of survival.” At the same time, writing was a constant struggle for him. “It's the hardest thing I can imagine.”
For nearly 50 years, Auster lived in Brooklyn, New York City, where many of his stories are set. His wife Siri Hustvedt is no less famous as a writer than her husband, and their daughter Sophie, born in 1987, is enjoying success as a singer and actress.
More recently, Auster has published several major works, including the 2017 novel “4 3 2 1,” which runs to more than 1,000 pages, and the nearly 800-page biography of American writer Stephen Crane (1871-1900), “In Flames” (original title: “The Burning Boy “). A relatively short novel of about 200 pages, “Baumgardner” was published in the United States last November.
Ö1 Feature “America of Dreams. Meetings with author Paul Auster from 2022. Thomas David met the writer in Brooklyn to talk to him about his work and the social environment in America under President Joe Biden.
