Paul Auster - City Arts & Lectures: On Art & Politics 2006 January 25, 2006

In conversation with Stephen Elliott
Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Paul Auster is a master of unconventional storytelling. First a poet and then a translator and editor, Auster has gone on to experiment with questions of identity and environment, lore and language, lies and truth-telling, order and randomness, solitude and community, art and invention in his celebrated fiction and prose. A literary original, Auster is equally committed to simple, driven language and intricate plotting in his distinguished novels, including The New York Trilogy, The Book of Illusions, Oracle Night, and Leviathan. In his latest novel The Brooklyn Follies, Auster expertly spins a whirlwind tale of modern life when a lonely, divorced, and retired insurance salesman finds himself accidentally redeemed. Energetic and original, Auster has also collaborated as a screenwriter and co-director with Wayne Wang to translate ?Auggie Wren?s Christmas Story? into the films ?Smoke? and ?Blue in the Face.? He lives in Brooklyn, New York.