The Book of Illusions, Paul Auster
The Book of Illusions, Paul Auster
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The Book of Illusions

Author: Paul Auster

Narrator: Paul Auster

Unabridged: 10 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Harper

Published: 08/10/2004

Synopsis

After losing his wife and two young sons in an airplane crash, professor David Zimmer spends his waking hours in a blur of alcoholic grief and self-pity. Then, watching television one night, he sees a clip from a lost film by the silent comedian Hector Mann. Zimmer soon finds himself embarking on a journey around the world to study the works of this mysterious figure, who vanished from sight in 1929.Presumed dead for sixty years, Hector Mann was a comic genius who had flashed briefly across American movie screens, tantalizing the public with the promise of a brilliant future. Then, just as the silent era came to an end, he walked out of his house one January morning and was never heard from again.Zimmer's research leads him to write the first full-length study of Hector's films. Upon publication the following year, a letter turns up bearing a return address from New Mexico -- supposedly written by Hector's wife. ""Hector has read your book and would like to meet you. Are you interested in paying us a visit?"" Is the letter a hoax, or is Hector Mann still alive? Torn between doubt and belief, Zimmer hesitates, until one night a strange woman appears on his doorstep and makes the decision from him, changing his life forever.

About Paul Auster

Paul Auster is the bestselling author of Oracle Night, The Book of Illusions, and Timbuktu. I Thought My Father Was God, the NPR National Story Project anthology, which he edited, was also a national bestseller. His work has been translated into thirty languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Will on March 02, 2022

After having lost his wife and children in a plane crash, writer and teacher David Zimmer is on a path of self-destruction, drinking, behaving badly around people, rejecting any and all understanding and sympathy. But seeing a bit of silent film comedy on TV, he takes up the task of examining and wr......more

Goodreads review by Valeriu on April 18, 2023

Exact în clipa în care Alma Grund urcă în patul nefericitului David Zimmer, deși e ora 3 noaptea și ar fi putut să urce cu cel puțin două ore mai devreme, dacă tot voia asta, eu, unul, ies sfios din roman și o las pe Alma să-l consoleze cum poate ea mai bine pe bărbat, fiindcă David a suferit muuuul......more

Goodreads review by Jill on February 17, 2009

By reading this book I have become a die-hard Auster fan. The man is amazing. So clever, so imaginitive, so poetic and almost profound. This book rambles, and in doing so touches on so many intertwined narratives that one almost gives up on what was assumed to be the original plot and assumes the op......more

Goodreads review by Ian on July 09, 2021

CRITIQUE: Multi-Dimensional Narrative Paul Auster uses multiple dimensions of narrative to structure this story of Professor David Zimmer and silent film actor Hector Mann (born Chaim Mandelbaum). The first and most straightforward tells us about Zimmer and the loss of his wife (Helen) and two sons (To......more

Goodreads review by Erik on August 19, 2011

Paul Auster, you bastard! The man writes such depressing stuff. As with the other Auster I've read (I know I've only read 2 Austers, I am such a failure at being pretentious), I finished this and I was like... what, why did I read this? To explain myself I should say that I follow the Roger Ebert scho......more

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