Paul Auster, author of ‘New York Trilogy,’ dead at 77

(CNN) — Paul Auster, the acclaimed American author of “The New York Trilogy,” has died at age 77.

Auster, who was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1947, had a long career not only as a celebrated novelist, but also as an essayist, translator, screenwriter and poet, whose work was published in more than 40 languages.

A host of media outlets reported that Auster’s death was confirmed by his friend and fellow author Jacki Lyden.

Auster began translating the works of French writers when he moved to France after graduating from Columbia University in 1970. It was then that he also started publishing his own work in American journals.

Major recognition came after the publication of “The New York Trilogy” – a series of experimental detective stories – in 1987. His other bestselling novels included “4 3 2 1,” “Sunset Park,” “The Book of Illusions” and “Moon Palace.”

Last year, Auster’s wife, the writer Siri Hustvedt, revealed that he had cancer. Sharing the news on Instagram, she said he had been diagnosed in December 2022, that he was receiving treatment and that she was living in “Cancerland.”

A few months later, Hustvedt posted a picture of herself and Auster – with whom she lived for more than four decades – and an update on his condition. “Watching Paul I have understood what grace under pressure looks like. Stalwart and uncomplaining, humor intact, he has made this time of his sickness, which has now lasted almost a year, beautiful, not ugly,” she wrote.

Much of Auster’s fiction explored the idea of self and often featured him in veiled incarnations, prompting many critics to speculate on his use of autobiography. Another preoccupation in his work was the question of chance and fate. In “4 3 2 1,” published in 2017, the novel’s main character experienced four alternative lives.

An early experience of how life can change in an instant played a major influence on Auster and his writing. In an interview with the BBC prior to the 2012 publication of his autobiographical work “Winter Journal,” Auster said chance and coincidence are what he described as the “mechanics of reality.”

He explained: “Unexpected things are happening all the time to everybody and in fact much of life is about chance. There are very few necessary facts. I suppose the only ones are once you are born you are destined to die and pretty much everything in between is up for grabs.”

Auster then went on to describe how at just 14 he was on a hike with a group of 20 boys when they got caught up in a thunderstorm. One of his peers was hit by a lightning bolt and killed.

“This absolutely changed my life,” he said. “I think about it every day. It never goes away. It was my first big lesson in the capriciousness of life, how unstable everything is, how quickly things can change. From one eye blink to another, the world is entirely different.

“Here was a 14-year-old boy, happy, alive and in an instant later he was dead.”

The impact of this episode was lifelong, he said. “I haven’t lived through wars, pestilences… but this is my war experience. This is, I think, the kind of thing that soldiers go through all the time. I was young and it made an enormous impression on me, so if you want to talk about my philosophy that’s the kernel of the whole thing.”

Auster, who lived in Brooklyn, New York, received numerous honors, including Spain’s Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature in 2006. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Commander of France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Posting on X, the account for The Booker Prizes paid tribute to Auster, writing: “We are very sad to hear of the death of Booker Prize shortlistee Paul Auster, whose work touched readers and influenced writers all over the world, and whose generosity was felt in just as many quarters. We extend our condolences to his wife Siri Hustvedt and his family.”

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