I have not read any of Paul Auster's novels before but if they are written anything like Man in the Dark I think I will have to pick some of them up.
I've finished this short novel (180 pages) in two sittings and although I am left wanting more - more of the characters not necessarily the story - I am by no means disappointed.
Man in the Dark is told from the perspective of 72 year old August Brill, an American man currently living with his daughter Miriam and granddaughter Katya after a serious car accident in which one of his legs was shattered. The household is submerged in grief - August's wife, Sonia died just over a year ago, Miriam is still coming to terms with her divorce from Kayta's father and Katya's boyfriend, Titus has been murdered - the details of which become clear at the end of the book.
The book is told over the course of one sleepless night - in order to stop his mind from turning to personal tragedies and painful memories August (a retired book critic) tells himself a fictionalised story of a man by the name of Owen Brick, a magician who finds himself caught up in an America in the midst of civil war in present day times. The premise of the story is that the events of 9/11 have not happened and instead of going to war with Iraq America turned on itself after the 2000 presidential election. An interesting premise indeed!
An emotive, intriguing and absorbing novel - highly recommended.
