4 3 2 1: A novel

Author(s): Paul Auster

Novel | Read our reviews! | USA



Shortlisted 2017 Man Booker Prize: Paul Auster's first novel in seven years - his greatest, most provocative, most heartbreaking and most satisfying work.






Description



On March 3rd, 1947, Archibald Isaac Ferguson, the only child of Rose and Stanley Ferguson, is born.

From that single beginning, Ferguson's life will take four simultaneous paths.

Four Fergusons will go on to lead four parallel and entirely different lives. Family fortunes diverge. Loves and friendships and passions contrast.

Each version of Ferguson's story rushes across the fractured terrain of mid-twentieth century America, in this sweeping story of birthright and possibility, of love and the fullness of life itself.


From page one, I knew this was going to be splendid. When a writer tells a subtle joke and makes you laugh within the first few moments of reading, you know that it’s a winner. Paul Auster’s first book in seven years, 4 3 2 1, follows the life of Archibald Isaac Ferguson born March 3, 1947. It’s not one life though: this Jewish boy born in Newark has 4 lives. Auster tells the story in parts - four strands - in sliding door style. In each part a fateful event at Archibald's father’s business (a burglary, a fire, a tragic accident and a buyout) leads to a change in circumstances for the family, and Archie’s life is determined by how his immediate family respond. Fate plays her part and Archie’s life is altered. The minutiae of Ferguson’s life are delightfully told and, despite the variations in his circumstances, his characteristics along with those of his immediate family keeps the four strands linked together. Auster keeps many things the same, the characteristics, likes and dislikes, interests and talents of the main characters are constant. Circumstance dictates the roles they take and the choices they make.The extended family play their roles like bit actors, adding substance and colour to the novel and giving Auster room to articulate the social strata and political opinions of the time, and to bring in (or, conversely, to leave out) players that add to the sweeping saga of Ferguson’s life. This is excellent writing, taking you into the mind of one life in all its fragmented realities, and capturing a time and place - the American mid-twentieth-century - in all its tumultuous glory. If you enjoy Donna Tartt, Jonathan Franzen or Jonathan Safran Foer you will enjoy this.


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Product Information

Paul Auster's first novel in seven years. His greatest, most provocative, most heartbreaking, most satisfying work.

Long-listed for Man Booker Prize 2017.

Paul Auster is the bestselling author of Winter Journal, Sunset Park, Man in the Dark, The Brooklyn Follies, 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 and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.Among his other honours are the Independent Spirit Award for the screenplay of Smoke and the Prix Medicis Etranger for Leviathan. He has also been shortlisted for both the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (The Book of Illusions) and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction (The Music of Chance). His work has been translated into more than forty languages.He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

General Fields

  • : 9780571324651
  • : Faber
  • : Faber Paperback
  • : 0.766
  • : September 2017
  • : 198mm X 129mm
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Paul Auster
  • : Paperback
  • : English
  • : 813/.54