Sunset Park »

Paul Auster's unique novels are often like Chinese boxes, continually opening further to reveal new layers. He approaches his writing as he has approached his life, to an extent: as something of a nomad in a perpetually changing, mysterious landscape.

"Sunset Park follows the hopes and fears of a cast of unforgettable characters brought together by the mysterious Miles Heller during the dark months of the 2008 economic collapse." "An enigmatic young man employed as a trash-out worker in southern Florida obsessively photographing thousands of abandoned objects left behind by the evicted families." "A group of young people squatting in a house in Sunset Park, Brooklyn." "The Hospital for Broken Things, which specializes in repairing the artifacts of a vanished world." "William Wyler's 1946 classic The Best Years of Our Lives." "A celebrated actress preparing to return to Broadway." "An independent publisher desperately trying to save his business and his marriage." These are just some of the elements Auster magically weaves together in this immensely moving novel about contemporary America and its ghosts. Sunset Park confirms Paul Auster as one of our greatest living writers.

The Barnes & Noble Review

. . .Sunset Park's prodigal-son tale is somberly poignant, a study of how deeply the urge to connect runs. (The book's final section has the embracing title "All," with a chapter dedicated to each major character.) The characteristic literary references, sexual transgressions, and peculiar coincidences remain. But it's the father-son story at the core that prevails and intensifies, culminating in an ending as powerful and open to interpretation as Wyler's film. We can go home again, Auster wants us to know. But how brutally difficult it can be to face that threshold and walk in.