The Brooklyn follies

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 may offer them the possibility of redemption. Filled with stories and characters, mystery and fraud, 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.

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Nathan Glass has come to Brooklyn to die. Divorced, estranged from his only daughter, the retired life insurance salesman seeks only solitude and anonymity. Then Nathan finds his long-lost nephew, Tom Wood, working in a local bookstore - a far cry from the brilliant academic career hed begun when Nathan saw him last. Toms boss is the charismatic Harry Brightman, whom fate has also brought to the ancient kingdom of Brooklyn, New York. Through Tom and Harry, Nathans world gradually broadens to include a new set of acquaintances not to mention a stray relative or two and leads him to a reckoning with his past. Among the many twists in the delicious plot are a scam involving a forgery of the first page of The Scarlet Letter, a disturbing revelation that takes place in a sperm bank, and an impossible, utopian dream of a rural refuge. Meanwhile, the wry and acerbic Nathan has undertaken something he calls The Book of Human Folly, in which he proposes to set down in the simplest, clearest language possible an account of every blunder, every pratfall, every embarrassment, every idiocy, every foible, and every inane act I had committed during my long and checkered career as a man. But life takes over instead, and Nathans despair is swept away as he finds himself more and more implicated in the joys and sorrows of others. The Brooklyn Follies is Paul Austers warmest, most exuberant novel, a moving and unforgettable hymn to the glories and mysteries of ordinary human life.