Sunset Park - Softcover

"Paul Auster is one of those sages with confounding talent--confounding for one because he's simply "that good... "He belongs among Vonnegut, Roth, and DeLillo... Now is the time to herald the Post-Recession Novel. "Sunset Park" looks to be it." --Claire Howorth, "The Daily Beast " "Exquisitely crafted, surprisingly tender... A story grounded in the potent emotions of love, loss, regret and vengeance, and the painful reality of current day calamities.... Auster fans and newcomers will find in "Sunset Park" his usual beautifully nuanced prose.... [and] a tremendous crash bang of an ending." --Jane Ciabattari, "NPR "Books We Like" " "A swift-moving, character-driven narrative [that] explores guilt, luck, and our enduring need for human contact and a sense of belonging. Powerful...Readers might find their one regret is seeing the book end." --Doug Childers, "Richmond Times-Dispatch" "A haymaker of a contemporary American novel, realistic and serious as your life." --Jim Higgins, "With a plot that encompasses war in the Middle East, economic recession and the perils of the publishing industry, a contemporary vitality distinguishes the latest from the veteran author.... Sure to please Auster fans and likely to attract new readers as well." -"Kirkus," (Starred Review) "Passionately literary... every element is saturated with implication as each wounded, questing character's story illuminates our tragic flaws and profound need for connection, coherence, and beauty. In a time of daunting crises and change, Auster reminds us of lasting things, of love, art, and 'the miraculous strangeness of being alive.'" -Donna Seaman, "Booklist," (Starred Review) "Auster deftly balances minute details that evoke New York City, post-financial meltdown, with marvelously drawn characters bruised but unbowed by life's vicissitudes. He has an impressive array of literary nominations to his credit, but this should be the novel that brings him a br

Paul Auster's Sunset Park is set in the sprawling flatlands of Florida, where twenty-eight-year-old Miles is photographing the last lingering traces of families who have abandoned their houses due to debt or foreclosure. Miles is haunted by guilt for having inadvertently caused the death of his step-brother, a situation that caused him to flee his father and step-mother in New York seven years ago. What keeps him in Florida is his relationship with a teenage high-school girl, Pilar, but when her family threatens to expose their relationship, Miles decides to protect Pilar by going back to Brooklyn, where he settles in a squat to prepare himself to face the inevitable confrontation with his father - a confrontation he has been avoiding for years. Set against the backdrop of the devastating global recession, and pulsing with the energy of Auster's previous novel Invisible, Sunset Park is as mythic as it is contemporary, as in love with baseball as it is with literature. It is above all, a story about love and forgiveness - not only among men and women, but also between fathers and sons.