From a "literary original" (The Wall Street Journal) comes a book that forces us to confront the blackness of night even as it celebrates the existence of ordinary joys in a world capable of the most grotesque violence.

Seventy-two-year-old August Brill is recovering from a car accident at his daughter's house in Vermont. When sleep refuses to come, he lies in bed and tells himself stories, struggling to push back thoughts about things he would prefer to forget: his wife's recent death and the horrific murder of his granddaughter's boyfriend, Titus. The retired book critic imagines a parallel world in which America is not at war with Iraq but with itself. In this other America the twin towers did not fall and the 2000 election results led to secession, as state after state pulled away from the union and a bloody civil war ensued. As the night progresses, Brill's story grows increasingly intense, and what he is desperately trying to avoid insists on being told.

I read a library copy of this book in 2010 - I think was the first Paul Auster book that I had read, and I've read a few since then. I'm fairly sure it was Haughtussa who put me onto this author.

I hope the recipient of this RABCK enjoys this too.

Thank you ukcanaus. I have read one of Auster's books many years ago …. The Book of Illusions …. but memory fades. This looks intriguing. Will let you know how it goes.