num_pages: 304
description: 'I was looking for a quiet place to die. Someone recommended Brooklyn, and so the next morning I travelled down there from Westchester to scope out the terrain...'So begins Paul Auster's remarkable new novel, The Brooklyn Follies. Set against the backdrop of the contested US election of 2000, it tells the story of Nathan and Tom, an uncle and nephew double-act. One in remission from lung cancer, divorced, and estranged from his only daughter, the other hiding away from his once promising academic career, and life in general.Having accidentally ended up in the same Brooklyn neighbourhood, they discover a community teeming with life and passion. When Lucy, the little girl who refuses to speak, comes into their lives there is suddenly a bridge from their pasts that offers them the possibility of redemption. Infused with character, mystery and humour, these lives intertwine and become bound together as Auster brilliantly explores the wider terrain of contemporary America - a crucible of broken dreams and of human folly.
language: English
title: The Brooklyn Follies
titlecomplete: The Brooklyn Follies
characters: Harry Brightman, Nathan Glass, Tom Wood
genres: Fiction, American, The United States Of America, Americana, Literature, Novels, Contemporary, New York, 21st Century, Literary Fiction
ratings_count: 27537
places: New York City, New York, Brooklyn, New York City, New York
publisher: Faber and Faber