The Book of Illusions

Six months after losing his wife and two young sons in a plane crash, Vermont professor David Zimmer spends his waking hours mired in alcoholic grief and self-pity. Then, watching television one night, he stumbles upon a lost film by the great silent comedian Hector Mann, and finds himself entranced. His growing obsession with the mystery of Mann’s true life story will take Zimmer on a strange and intense journey into a shadow-world of lies, illusions and unexpected love…‘A stunning feat of imagination and likely the best book that Auster has written.’ Financial Times‘The Book of Illusions is a masterpiece of storytelling - an astounding portrait of grief, as well as a convincing treatise on the redemptive power of art and laughter.’ Time Out‘This brilliant novel is compulsively told. Every sentence is taut with suspense.’ Spectator‘Auster’s great, strange gift is to create a parallel universe that looks almost exactly like the one to which we are accustomed, but which operates by different rules. The Book of Illusions is a fragment of an ongoing act of creative magic.’ The Times‘Through all its dark and delightful twists and turns, The Book of Illusions is suffused with warmth and illuminated by its narrator’s hard-won wisdom. This artful and elegant novel may be Auster’s best ever.’ Peter Cary