The Book of Illusions
Written by Paul Auster
Narrated by Paul Auster
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
After losing his wife and two young sons in an airplane crash, professor David Zimmer spends his waking hours in a blur of alcoholic grief and self-pity. Then, watching television one night, he sees a clip from a lost film by the silent comedian Hector Mann. Zimmer soon finds himself embarking on a journey around the world to study the works of this mysterious figure, who vanished from sight in 1929.
Presumed dead for sixty years, Hector Mann was a comic genius who had flashed briefly across American movie screens, tantalizing the public with the promise of a brilliant future. Then, just as the silent era came to an end, he walked out of his house one January morning and was never heard from again.
Zimmer's research leads him to write the first full-length study of Hector's films. Upon publication the following year, a letter turns up bearing a return address from New Mexico -- supposedly written by Hector's wife. ""Hector has read your book and would like to meet you. Are you interested in paying us a visit?"" Is the letter a hoax, or is Hector Mann still alive? Torn between doubt and belief, Zimmer hesitates, until one night a strange woman appears on his doorstep and makes the decision from him, changing his life forever.
Paul Auster
Paul Auster is the bestselling author of Oracle Night, The Book of Illusions, and Timbuktu. I Thought My Father Was God, the NPR National Story Project anthology, which he edited, was also a national bestseller. His work has been translated into thirty languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
More audiobooks from Paul Auster
I Thought My Father Was God Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oracle Night Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Invisible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sunset Park: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winter Journal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Report from the Interior Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Travels in the Scriptorium Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to The Book of Illusions
Related audiobooks
The John Updike Audio Collection Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The End of the End of the Earth: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unless Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Magus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cakes and Ale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winesburg, Ohio Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Foreword: A Selection from the John Updike Audio Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Eighth Day: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Man in the Dark: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Report from the Interior Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Book of Laughter and Forgetting: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Zero K Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Joke Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Paul Auster, 4, 3, 2, 1: Thalia Book Club Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Immortality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slowness: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Farewell Waltz: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everyman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Laughable Loves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Body Artist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Identity: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fresh Complaint: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Canada Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Americana Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Continental Drift Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Fiction For You
The Song of Achilles: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Anxious People: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yellowface: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tom Lake: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Parable of the Sower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Left Hand of Darkness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House in the Cerulean Sea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stardust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5CATCH-22 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Their Eyes Were Watching God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Measure: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Name of the Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dutch House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hate U Give Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nothing to See Here Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beneath a Scarlet Sky: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Book of Illusions
29 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Paul Auster at his best, with the added bonus of being read by the author himself!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I have read/listened this book couple of times and i can say, it is one of the greatest creations by Paul Auster. The book that makes you think a lot, the book that lives you confused and satisfied at once. Once you read it you can never stop thinking about it. Thinking about what was real and what was just an imagination. Or was anything real at all?
1 person found this helpful