The Paul Auster Research Library
The Paul Auster Library aims to be
- the international hub for research in the work of Paul Auster
- the physical home of Auster’s books in all languages
- the virtual home of electronic manuscripts by Auster in up to forty languages
- a forum for conversation and dialogue between writers of Anglophone literature, literary critics and theorists
- an interdisciplinary network for participants in the making of the book: author, critic, editor, illustrator, reader, student, translator.
It is with great sadness that we honour the passing of Paul Auster. He died peacefully 30th April at his home in Park Slope, Brooklyn surrounded by his closest family.
For half a century, Auster’s work has delighted readers around the globe across divisions of age, gender, ethnicity, social class, religion. One of the reasons his books and films are so loved is that Auster cared deeply about his characters. Earnest, suffering, delightful seekers of insight into what it is that makes us human. Often falling short of their own expectations. They were very much alive to him. So much so that he had several of them recur again and again in new stories, new books. Their trials and tribulations always held gingerly and with the utmost compassion in the hands of their maker.
Auster found it strange to think that his characters would live on after he was gone. But they will. The words remain. Auster’s beautiful words.