Baumgartner

A Novel

By: Paul Auster

Narrated by: Paul Auster

Paul Auster’s brilliant 18th novel opens with a scorched pot of water, which Sy Baumgartner—phenomenologist, noted author, and soon-to-be retired philosophy professor–has just forgotten on the stove.

Baumgartner’s life had been defined by his deep, abiding love for his wife, Anna, who was killed in a swimming accident nine years earlier. Now 71, Baumgartner continues to struggle to live in her absence as the novel sinuously unfolds into spirals of memory and reminiscence, delineated in episodes spanning from 1968, when Sy and Anna meet as broke students working and writing in New York, through their passionate relationship over the next 40 years, and back to Baumgartner’s youth in Newark and his Polish-born father’s life as a dress-shop owner and failed revolutionary.

Rich with compassion, wit, and Auster’s keen eye for beauty in the smallest, most transient moments of ordinary life, Baumgartner asks: Why do we remember certain moments and forget others? In one of his most luminous works and his first novel since the Booker-shortlisted tour-de-force 4 3 2 1, Paul Auster captures several lifetimes.

©2023 Paul Auster. Portions of this book were first published in Harper’s Magazine and Literary Hub. Recorded by arrangement with Grove Press, an imprint of Grove Atlantic, Inc. (P)2023 Audible, Inc.

Little gem of a book

More a series of family stories than a novel with a compelling plot, this book kept my attention because it was so beautifully written. Overall it was quite melancholy and I found it a bit depressing. The ending was very abrupt but I can see that without a complex plot there wasn’t a way to resolve the whole story.

Great book but bad ending

The description of life as an automobile towards the end of the book is thought provoking. The prose is beautiful throughout the book. It the ending leaves me angry.

Intelectual y filosófico

No me convenció , esperaba algo brillante de un autor famoso como Austen. Los diálogos personales son confusos y reflejan una sociedad americana en soledad y decadencia. es una novela académica de las que intento alejarme

A window inside the mind

As with other Auster’s novels we can see the protagonist mind at work. This meandering story comes out as a free association train of thought. It’s wonderful but the abrupt end leaves us wanting more.

Great Listen

I liked this book, and enjoyed the performance of Paul Auster reading his own work. It's rare that a writer can read their own work effectively, but in this case, it worked! I felt the ending was just a tiny bit confusing. I don't want to give anything away, so I won't say more about the specifics or events in the ending. I think I get it, but I would have liked just a tiny bit more so that I could be sure. I understand that a great writer like Paul Auster didn't want to spoon feed us, and I truly appreciate that, but just a bit more would have been very helpful!