num_pages: 321
description: Six months after losing his wife and two young sons in an airplane crash, Vermont professor David Zimmer spends his waking hours mired in a blur of alcoholic grief and self-pity. Then, watching television one night, he stumbles upon a clip from a lost film by silent comedian Hector Mann. Zimmer’s interest is piqued, and he soon finds himself embarking on a journey around the world to research a book on this mysterious figure, who vanished from sight in 1929 and has been presumed dead for sixty years.When the book is published the following year, a letter turns up in Zimmer’s mailbox bearing a return address from a small town in New Mexico inviting him to meet Hector. Torn between doubt and belief, Zimmer hesitates, until one night a strange woman appears on his doorstep and makes the decision for him, changing his life forever.The Book of Illusions is, in the words of Peter Carey, “suffused with warmth and illuminated by its narrator’s hard won wisdom. This artful and elegant novel may be Auster’s best ever.”
language: English
title: The Book of Illusions
titlecomplete: The Book of Illusions
characters: Hector Mann, David Zimmer
genres: American, 21st Century, Literary Fiction, Novels, Drama, Literature, Mystery, The United States Of America, Fiction, Contemporary
ratings_count: 23593
places: Vermont
awards: awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Borders Original Voices Award
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Dublin Literary Award
publisher: Picador