Collected Novels, Volume 2

by Paul Auster

In this continuing series, Volume Two brings together three more of Paul Auster's hugely influential novels.

In The Music of Chance, the story of Jim Nashe and Jack Pozzi, Auster evokes the strong European influences of Beckett and Kafka in a brilliant and unsettling parable of loss and gambling. In Leviathan, he makes perhaps his most direct attempt at exploring the political reality of contemporary American life, through one writer's attempt to bear witness to his friend's involvement in a series of protest bombings. Finally, in Mr Vertigo Auster crafts a cautionary tale of greed and exploitation in the story of Walt, the irrepressible orphan from the Mid-West, who comes to be taught the art of levitation by the mysterious Master Yehudi.

Highly varied, yet instantly recognisable as the work of the same storyteller, these three novels form the next chapter in the ongoing career of one of America's most enduring and fascinating writers.

Genres: Fiction

608 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Paul Auster was the bestselling author of 4 3 2 1, Bloodbath Nation, Baumgartner, The Book of Illusions, and The New York Trilogy, among many other works. In 2006 he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature. Among his other honors are the Prix Médicis Étranger for Leviathan, the Independent Spirit Award for the screenplay of Smoke, and the Premio Napoli for Sunset Park. In 2012, he was the first recipient of the NYC Literary Honors in the category of fiction. He was also a finalist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (The Book of Illusions), the PEN/Faulkner Award (The Music of Chance), the Edgar Award (City of Glass), and the Man Booker Prize (4 3 2 1). Auster was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His work has been translated into more than forty languages. He died at age seventy-seven in 2024.