Kindle
$11.99
Available instantly
Audible Logo Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial
Hardcover
$16.87
Paperback
$16.50
Currently unavailable.
We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.
Select delivery location
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Paul Auster
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Man in the Dark Hardcover – August 19, 2008

by Paul Auster (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 205 ratings
See all formats and editions
A new novel with a dark political twist from “one of America’s greats.”* Man in the Dark is Paul Auster’s brilliant, devastating novel about the many realities we inhabit as wars flame all around us. Seventy-two-year-old August Brill is recovering from a car accident in his daughter’s house in Vermont. When sleep refuses to come, he lies in bed and tells himself stories, struggling to push back thoughts about things he would prefer to forget—his wife’s recent death and the horrific murder of his granddaughter’s boyfriend, Titus. The retired book critic imagines a parallel world in which America is not at war with Iraq but with itself. In this other America the twin towers did not fall and the 2000 election results led to secession, as state after state pulled away from the union and a bloody civil war ensued. As the night progresses, Brill’s story grows increasingly intense, and what he is so desperately trying to avoid insists on being told. Joined in the early hours by his granddaughter, he gradually opens up to her and recounts the story of his marriage. After she falls asleep, he at last finds the courage to revisit the trauma of Titus’s death. Passionate and shocking, Man in the Dark is a novel of our moment, a book that forces us to confront the blackness of night even as it celebrates the existence of ordinary joys in a world capable of the most grotesque violence. * Time Out (Chicago)
Previous page
  1. Print length
    192 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Holt, Henry & Company, Inc.
  4. Publication date
    August 19, 2008
  5. ISBN-10
    1616793171
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1616793173
  7. See all details
Next page
Books with Buzz
Books with Buzz
Discover the latest buzz-worthy books, from mysteries and romance to humor and nonfiction. Explore more

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Holt, Henry & Company, Inc. (August 19, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1616793171
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1616793173
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 205 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Paul Auster

Paul Auster

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Paul Auster is the best-selling author of Man in the Dark, The Brooklyn Follies, The Book of Illusions, The New York Trilogy, among many other works. In 2006 he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Among his other honours are the Independent Spirit Award for the screenplay of Smoke and the Prix Medicis Etranger for Leviathan. He has also been short-listed for both the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (The Book of Illusions) and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction (The Music of Chance). His work has been translated into more than thirty languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
205 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Mishka M
5.0 out of 5 stars why fiction?
Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2008
Verified Purchase
In this novel Paul Auster continues his exploration of the writing process, and why it is vital to the writer. Once again he presents us with a story within a story, but this time he sheds light on the urge to create fiction. the story within the story presents a parallel universe where the characters are manipulated by their creator, Brill. That narrative is summarily interrupted when the protagonists are killed off, the author taking care to ensure they got a dignified funeral. That story was about the ravages of war and the relationships between a man and the two women in his life. As we read on, we realize that Brill himself is living with the repercussions of war, and is dealing with the consequences of his entanglement with two women. An insomniac, he creates stories in order to while away the hours of the night. As he negotiates his pain and that of his daughter and grand-daughter, he gradually frees himself from his solitude. The ending of the story within the story coincides with his ability to confront the demons that possess him and his loved ones. His storytelling was an integral part of his grieving and helped him reach a point where the healing can begin.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
alldayReader
4.0 out of 5 stars The Beautiful Man in the Dark
Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2008
Verified Purchase
Paul Auster's Man in the Dark is perfect, a genuine communication from the heart. Auster is always a good writer but in this book he is great. The writing is sincere and true, even the parts that are grim fantasy (the United States torn apart in a secessionist war). The story of a man, his daughter, and his granddaughter, all facing their own heartbreaks -- "life is disappointing, isn't it?" -- and yet "the weird world rolls on." What joy there is in that knowledge that it does roll on, that with all the unkindness, and worse, brutality and evil, the generations go on and there are moments of connection that are so beautiful that they can be understood as proof of God (as one character believes, for a while anyway) or just wonderful, passing luck.

Joy, connection, peace, responsibility: Auster takes all these themes, really big themes that have been written about for hundreds and hundreds of years, and he writes a book that is utterly fresh, a book that is ancient and new. A truly beautiful accomplishment. I will read this book again, I know, and find even more there, more sentences and visuals and hints at both misery and joy. Auster is a natural writer, and so gifted; with this book, he has given us something wonderful.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
nuggets4life
3.0 out of 5 stars Man in the Dark
Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2009
Verified Purchase
First things first, Paul Auster is one of the greatest writers of our times. His works are marked by a strong sense of humanity and the underlying conflicts of life in this world. His prose is engaging and eye-opening - especially when he's writing about New York City or fictionalized urban environments like "The City" of his superb apocalyptic novel, In The Country of Last Things. And the layered subtexts of his works - extensive postmodern webs of reference and meaning - make him a darling of literature professors worldwide.

So whenever the Brooklyn-based author releases a new book, expectations run higher than the Tower of Babel in City of Glass from Auster's New York Trilogy. So what about his latest, Man in the Dark?

To keep this short and concise, let's say it's a mixed bag. Man in the Dark has moments of brilliance and Auster's signature touch for moving, deeply human stories. But newcomers to Auster's work may find this novel somewhat inaccessible.

A lot of this has to do with the book's plot: The hero, an average Joe by the name of Owen Brick, unwillingly finds himself in a parallel world, an alternate version of America where a civil war has gripped the entire country. His mission: Kill a Seventy-two-year-old writer named August Brill, an insomniac who is imagining the whole mess in his own head. Shoot Brill, it all ends.

While this may sound like the premise for a Kurt Vonnegut novel - like Billy Pilgrim becoming "unstuck in time" in Slaughterhouse Five - there is more to the story than this play on parallel worlds and the question whether a universe can exist without an observer. Or if it is the very nature of a universe to bring forth observers, who in turn create their own worlds. And if an apple falls from a tree and nobody sees it, did it really fall?

Literature professors all over the place are donning their finest turtle necks to ponder these questions in colleges and university classrooms, right now.

However, what makes Man in the Dark really shine is all the episodes of human life it contains. Two lovers meeting randomly on the streets of New York to forge a life-long connection. The loss of loved ones and the wounds that remain. All that with Auster's signature twists, like a Cold War spy destroyed by his past just as the Cold War ends, or a son being evicted by his mother twice - in life and death, respectively.

"Coining phrases in the middle of the night, making up stories in the middle of the night - we're moving on, my little darlings," narrator August Brill says.

But ultimately, Man in the Dark is more than just a play on imaginary worlds and touching stories that may or may not be made up. It's also a wake-up call to reality. On the last ten pages, Auster achieves to bring us face-to-face with the horrifying reality of an ongoing war and the atrocities it brings. And this revelation alone, despite the at-times confusing story line, is well worth the read.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
jeanne delmar
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2017
Verified Purchase
Great reading
Helpful
 Report
Celal Salik
4.0 out of 5 stars Solid Auster novel but not his best work
Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2012
Verified Purchase
I enjoy reading Auster's novels.I think I read 8 of novels so far.

Auster's unique style is evident in this novel. However,I would not characterize it as his best work.

There are some really cool "ideas" in the novel.
For some reason I felt like they were not developed to their full potential.
For the purpose of keeping the suspense, I will give an example by using somewhat vague labels.
The section where the main character writes a story and we are able to read the first-hand account of what goes in that story could be developed further in detail.
I thought the setup had a lot of potential for many different storylines but it ends abruptly.
I think the section reflects Auster's genious but somehow I felt like it was rushed like the rest of the novel.

My overall recommendation: If you have not read any of Auster's work,I would not recommend starting with this novel.

However,if you're an Auster fan like me,then it's definitely worth your time.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
A.T. Stone
5.0 out of 5 stars Auster does it again!
Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2010
Verified Purchase
The master of obsessive characters and multi-layered, internalized worlds takes on the themes of aging, family dynamics, parallel realities and the psychic wounds inflicted by religious fanatics in a post 9/11 US.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
Daniel Marc Reicher
5.0 out of 5 stars Another Paul Auster masterpiece.
Reviewed in Canada on January 1, 2024
Verified Purchase
A wonderful ride, but I had to slow it down deliberately so I wouldn’t finish it too quickly.
Report
Mrs G
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 14, 2016
Verified Purchase
Bought as Christmas gift
Report
LForst
5.0 out of 5 stars Great!
Reviewed in Germany on July 10, 2013
Verified Purchase
It was a great book. My first one from Paul Auster. I am more the Romance or detective book fan but I really loved this one. The story is very well written, it goes always straight to the point and I always had fun reading.

I'll definitely buy another one from Auster.
Report
郷田庄太郎
5.0 out of 5 stars 今まで読んだ彼の作品の中で一番良かったような気がします。
Reviewed in Japan on August 3, 2009
Verified Purchase
事故で足を痛めベッドから起き上がることすらままならない老人と、彼が空想する内戦状態の現代アメリカに迷い込んだ男性のお話が同時並行的に進行して行きます。最近のムラカミ・ハルキの作品風の展開なのですが、ポール・オースターが時々（いや、よく？）書く「観念世界」的な小説っぽくもあり、ちょっとヤだな、とヘボ読者の私は思ってしまいました。しかし、読み進めて行くうちに、その余り良い印象を与えなかった前半部の二重構造の意味合いが全て、それも自然に解き明かされてしまいます。どうしてジイちゃんは夜な夜なベッドでシコシコと「アメリカの内戦」を妄想してたのか･･･。ジイさんとその娘とそのまた娘の三人のお話だとも言えるのですが、私は最後読みながら目に涙さえ浮かべてしまいました。死んじまったバアさん含め、作品の主な登場人物の全てを愛することが出来た（別に皆偉くも立派でも、それほど魅力的であるわけでもないのですが）素晴らしい一編だと私は、心から思いました。
9 people found this helpful
 Report
Rayjay
4.0 out of 5 stars I liked this book very much but there definitely was an ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 18, 2016
Verified Purchase
I liked this book very much but there definitely was an element of 'what just happened!'. The book itself does not delve enough into characters so there is a certain shallowness to the book even though it is wonderfully written. The stories in the book do not reconcile and the storey involving the parallel world and the war just comes to an abrupt end and leaves the reading thinking 'is that it?'
One person found this helpful
 Report