Paul Auster.

Paul Auster’s father owned buildings in Jersey City with his brothers, and the family lived in the Newark suburbs of South Orange and Maplewood. Auster read books heavily as a child, a habit that led him to writing. When his parents divorced during his senior year at Columbia High School, his mother moved the family to an apartment in the Weequahic section of Newark. Instead of attending his graduation, Auster traveled to Europe, visiting Italy, Spain, Paris, and Dublin while working on an early novel. He later enrolled at Columbia University, graduating with a BA in English and comparative literature in 1969 and an MA the following year.

From 1971 to 1974, Auster lived in France, writing poetry and working odd jobs. He published his early poetry and essays before turning to novels. Moon Palace, started in the early 1970s and completed years later, marked his breakthrough. The novel became widely read, including in German schools for the Abitur exam. Auster wrote the screenplay for the 1993 film The Music of Chance, adapting his own novel. In 1995, he directed his first motion picture, The Inner Life of Martin Frost, which he also wrote and narrated. Auster served on the official competition juries at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997, the Venice Film Festival in 1996, and the San Sebastian Film Festival in 2007. His 2013 memoir, Report From the Interior, included detailed summaries of films he considered pivotal.

Auster’s first relationship was with writer Lydia Davis, whom he began dating in early 1966 while she attended Barnard College. They married in 1974 and had a son, Daniel Auster, before divorcing in 1977. In 1982, Auster married novelist Siri Hustvedt, who is of Norwegian descent. They had a daughter, Sophie Auster, who became a popular singer in France. The family settled in Brooklyn, New York, where Auster lived until his death. Auster also spent significant time in France, living there from 1971 to 1974 and returning often.

Paul Auster won numerous awards, including the Princess of Asturias Literary Prize, the Prix Médicis étranger, and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He became a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and received the title of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in France. Auster also received honorary doctorates from the University of Liège and the University of Copenhagen. His novel Moon Palace became part of the German school curriculum for the Abitur examination. Auster’s postmodern narratives, which explore coincidence and identity, influenced a generation of writers and filmmakers. He is remembered for his humanistic and intricately plotted novels Moon Palace and In the Country of Last Things.