The Jewish-American writer Paul Auster passed away at the age of 77

The respected Jewish-American author, Paul Auster, passed away at the age of 77. This was reported this morning (Wednesday). Oster died at his home, as a result of complications from the cancer he had been battling for the past few years. Auster, one of the most popular and respected authors, co-wrote “The Music of Chance”, “The New York Trilogy” and “Mr. Vertigo”.

Oster was born in New Jersey in 1947 to a middle-class family. He studied at Columbia University and moved to Paris in the early 1970s. A few years later he returned to the United States. His first book, “The Invention of Loneliness”, was published in 1982 and there he described the relationship between himself and his father. In the years that followed, he wrote prose books such as “The Glass City”, “4321”, “The Music of Chance” and “Leviathan” which were translated into many languages.

When he was 14 years old, his best friend was killed by lightning during a summer camp, an event that he later said changed his life. After a year, after reading Dostoyevsky’s novel “Sin and Punishment”, he decided to become a writer.

In 2022, Auster experienced a crisis, when on April 16, his son Daniel was arrested and charged with the manslaughter and negligent homicide of his 10-month-old daughter who died from the heroin and fentanyl he used. Ten days later, Daniel died of an overdose.

Auster won a long series of prestigious awards for his works, including the Medicis Prize, the Prince of Asturias Prize, the Packard Prize of the Order of Arts and Letters and was nominated in 2017 for the Booker Prize for his book “4321”.

Auster is survived by his wife, writer Siri Hustvedt, and his daughter, model Sophie Auster. He was a relative of Daniel Oster, who was the first Jewish mayor of Jerusalem and one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel.