His family announced at the beginning of 2023 that he had been hospitalised with cancer

The famous American writer Paul Auster, known for works such as ‘New York Trilogy’, ‘Vertigo’ and ‘Moon Palace’, has died at the age of 77, as announced by journalist and author Jacki Lynden on behalf of his family. The news was reported by several media, including the New York Times, on Wednesday 1 May. Paul Auster had been diagnosed with cancer, as his wife Siri Hustvedt had previously stated in March 2023.

The author of more than thirty books translated into over 40 languages, Paul Auster won the Prix Médicis étranger for ‘Leviathan’ in 1993. He was particularly admired in France, which he considered his ‘second country’.

After his studies, he lived in Paris from 1971 to 1975, occupying a maid’s room. During this period, he had a variety of experiences, including meeting a prostitute who recited poems by Baudelaire to him. Although he came close to enrolling at the Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques, he instead worked on scripts for silent films and translated works by French writers such as Breton, Mallarmé, Michaux and Dupin. His French was renowned, although he was marked by a hoarse voice due to his passion for cigarillos.