I’ve really enjoyed reading this book by Paul Auster. I hadn’t read anything by him before but Judith of Reader in the Wilderness pointed me in his direction, thank you.

It’s the story of Nathan and his relationships with his extended family and the characters of the neighbourhood in Brooklyn which he has just moved to. He hasn’t been back there since his parents moved out 56 years ago and as he was only 3 years old at the time he has no memories of the place but he is still drawn back there after having treatment for lung cancer. His wife has recently divorced him.

The way Paul Auster describes Brooklyn, it sounds exactly like Glasgow, and as an exiled Glaswegian I became immediately enamoured of the place and the people.

Apparently, “Brooklynites are less reluctant to talk to strangers than any tribe I have previously encountered. They butt into one another’s business at will (old women scolding young mothers for not dressing their children warmly enough, passersby snapping at dog walkers for yanking to hard on the leash); they argue like deranged four-year-olds over disputed parking spaces; they zip out dazzling one-liners as a matter of course.”

This book is just 304 pages long but there is a lot going on in it and it is set in the run up to and aftermath of the US election of 2000.

I’ll be reading more Paul Auster books and I’m now kicking myself for not borrowing Invisible from the library at the same time. I probably won’t see it on the shelves again for ages. It was the only other Auster book in the library, I think I’ll take a look in tomorrow and see if it’s still there.