Sunset Park - by Paul Auster (Paperback)

About the Book

A luminous, passionate, expansive, and emotional tour de force, "Sunset Park" follows the hopes and fears of a cast of unforgettable characters brought together by the mysterious Miles Heller during the dark months of the 2008 economic collapse.

Book Synopsis

Longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award

From the bestselling author of 4 3 2 1 and The New York Trilogy comes a luminous, tour-de-force novel set during the 2008 economic collapse.

"Auster fans and newcomers will find in Sunset Park his usual beautifully nuanced prose.... [and] a tremendous crash bang of an ending."
-- NPR

Sunset Park opens with twenty-eight-year-old Miles Heller trashing out foreclosed houses in Florida, the latest stop in his flight across the country. When Miles falls in love with Pilar Sanchez, he finds himself fleeing once again, going back to New York, where his family still lives, and into an abandoned house of young squatters in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

Woven together from various points of view--that of Miles's father, an independent book publisher trying to stay afloat, Miles's mother, a celebrated actress preparing her return to the New York stage, and the various men and women who live in the house--"Auster seems to carry all of humanity inside him" (The Boston Globe).

Review Quotes

"Paul Auster is one of those sages with confounding talent--confounding for one because he's simply that good... He belongs among Vonnegut, Roth, and DeLillo... Now is the time to herald the Post-Recession Novel. Sunset Park looks to be it."
-- The Daily Beast

"Exquisitely crafted, surprisingly tender... A story grounded in the potent emotions of love, loss, regret and vengeance, and the painful reality of current day calamities.... Auster fans and newcomers will find in Sunset Park his usual beautifully nuanced prose.... [and] a tremendous crash bang of an ending."
-- NPR "Books We Like"

"A swift-moving, character-driven narrative [that] explores guilt, luck, and our enduring need for human contact and a sense of belonging. Powerful...Readers might find their one regret is seeing the book end."
-- Richmond Times-Dispatch

"A haymaker of a contemporary American novel, realistic and serious as your life."
-- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"With a plot that encompasses war in the Middle East, economic recession and the perils of the publishing industry, a contemporary vitality distinguishes the latest from the veteran author.... Sure to please Auster fans and likely to attract new readers as well."
-- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Passionately literary... every element is saturated with implication as each wounded, questing character's story illuminates our tragic flaws and profound need for connection, coherence, and beauty. In a time of daunting crises and change, Auster reminds us of lasting things, of love, art, and 'the miraculous strangeness of being alive.'"
-- Booklist (starred review)

"Auster deftly balances minute details that evoke New York City, post-financial meltdown, with marvelously drawn characters bruised but unbowed by life's vicissitudes. He has an impressive array of literary nominations to his credit, but this should be the novel that brings him a broader readership."
-- Library Journal (starred review)

"Auster is in excellent form... a gratifying departure from the postmodern trickery he's known for, one full of crisp turns of phrase and keen insights."
-- Publishers Weekly

"Sunset Park is sprawling but taut, toweringly ambitious in scope yet wholly intimate in the sphere of its characters' lives. While we still teeter on the brink of recession in an uncertain economic recovery--with millions still out of work and losing their homes--this novel is probably one of the most important literary touchstones of our era. And it's a true pleasure to read."
-- Library Journal

"A clear-eyed and muscular fable about tough economic times."
-- Library Journal, "My Picks"

"The latest and arguably most user-friendly among the whip-smart fiction canon of Paul Auster... [A] winning novel... In Sunset Park, Auster seems to carry all of humanity inside him."
-- The Boston Globe

"As remarkable as are Auster's skill and experience, this kind of writing--this kind of ending--takes another, rarer attribute: tremendous courage."
-- The Seattle Times

"Unexpectedly searing... Sunset Park's prodigal-son tale is somberly poignant, a study of how deeply the urge to connect runs."
-- Salon

"Classic Auster."
-- The Kansas City Star

"Resonate[s] with a warm acknowledgment of the tests and limitations of age and the vibrancy of experience... A lovely ride."
-- Elle

"Auster has delivered an emotionally appealing book about the varieties of modern love... The son-father story is in fact the warmest line of narrative Auster has ever written, outside of the man and the dog story in his much earlier novel, Timbuktu, and it lends the entire novel a certain provident heat."
-- Dallas News

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.