Iconic author Paul Auster, famed for his work on the New York Trilogy, has passed away at 77 due to complications from lung cancer.
The literary world is mourning the loss of Auster, who died on Tuesday, as confirmed by his close friend and fellow writer Jacki Lyden.
Renowned for his seminal work, The New York Trilogy, Auster was a prolific writer with 34 books to his name, including his most recent publication, Baumgartner, which came out last year.
Among his other notable works was Burning Boy: The Life and Work of Stephen Crane.
Joyce Caroll Oates once described Auster’s unique style in 2010 as producing “highly stylised, quirkily riddlesome postmodernist fiction in which narrators are rarely other than unreliable and the bedrock of plot is continually shifting”.
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This sad news arrives only two years after Auster’s family faced devastating losses when his son Daniel and granddaughter passed away.
In April 2022, Daniel Auster succumbed to a drug overdose at 44.
He was discovered unresponsive on a subway platform and tragically died six days later.
His death occurred shortly after he was accused in the fatal incident involving his 10-month-old daughter.
At that time, authorities reported that the infant had suffered acute intoxication from heroin and fentanyl.
In his statement, Daniel admitted to using heroin before lying down to nap with his daughter, only to wake up to the heartbreaking discovery of her lifeless body.
Following the announcement of Paul’s passing, social media was awash with tributes.
An X (formerly Twitter) user expressed their sorrow: “Oh man, so sad to hear about Paul Auster passing.
“Timbuktu is the greatest dog book ever, and I loved the Book Of Illusions with all my heart. Full of gratitude for his contributions, fly on Paul Auster.”
Another lamented: “Devastated to hear Paul Auster passed, one of my favorite contemporary authors, whose prose was matched only by his four-dimensional imagination. He’ll be missed dearly. May he rest in peace.”
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