Paul Auster, 1947 als Nachkomme eingewanderter österreichischer Juden in Newark, New Jersey geboren, studierte Anglistik und vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft an der Columbia University New York (B.A. und M.A.) und fuhr danach als Matrose auf einem Öltanker zur See. 1971 - 74 lebte er in Frankreich, hauptsächlich in Paris. Nach seiner Rückkehr in die USA nahm er einen Lehrauftrag an der Columbia University an und arbeitete zusätzlich als Übersetzer französischer Autoren (Blanchot, Bouchet, Dupin, Joubert, Mallarmé, Sartre) sowie als Herausgeber französischer Literatur in amerikanischen Verlagen. Paul Auster lebt in Brooklyn, New York, ist mit der Schriftstellerin Siri Hustvedt verheiratet und hat zwei Kinder. Er erhielt Stipendien der National Endowment for the Arts (1977 für Lyrik, 1983 für Prosa), den France Culture Prix Etranger (1988) und den Morton Dauwen Zabel Award (1990). 2006 erhielt er den Prinz-von-Asturien-Preis in der Sparte Literatur.

Paul Austers greatest, most heartbreaking and satisfying novela sweeping and surprising story of birthright and possibility, of love and of life itself: a masterpiece. 4 3 2 1 is a marvelous and unforgettably affecting tour de force.

* * * Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize * * *Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The Globe and Mail, Kirkus Reviews, Huffington Post, and The Spectator UK"An epic bildungsroman . . . . Original and complex . . . . A monumental assemblage of competing and complementary fictions, a novel that contains multitudes."-Tom Perrotta, The New York Times Book Review"A stunningly ambitious novel, and a pleasure to read. . . . An incredibly moving, true journey."-NPR New York Times Bestseller, Los Angeles Times Bestseller, Boston Globe Bestseller, National Indiebound BestsellerPaul Auster's greatest, most heartbreaking and satisfying novel-a sweeping and surprising story of birthright and possibility, of love and of life itself.Nearly two weeks early, on March 3, 1947, in the maternity ward of Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, Archibald Isaac Ferguson, the one and only child of Rose and Stanley Ferguson, is born. From that single beginning, Ferguson's life will take four simultaneous and independent fictional paths. Four identical Fergusons made of the same DNA, four boys who are the same boy, go on to lead four parallel and entirely different lives. Family fortunes diverge. Athletic skills and sex lives and friendships and intellectual passions contrast. Each Ferguson falls under the spell of the magnificent Amy Schneiderman, yet each Amy and each Ferguson have a relationship like no other. Meanwhile, readers will take in each Ferguson's pleasures and ache from each Ferguson's pains, as the mortal plot of each Ferguson's life rushes on. As inventive and dexterously constructed as anything Paul Auster has ever written, yet with a passion for realism and a great tenderness and fierce attachment to history and to life itself that readers have never seen from Auster before. 4 3 2 1 is a marvelous and unforgettably affecting tour de force.