The Brooklyn Follies

Novel by Paul Auster

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "The Brooklyn Follies" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

The Brooklyn Follies

First edition (UK)

Author| Paul Auster
Language| English
Publisher| Henry Holt and Co. (US)
Faber & Faber

Publication date

| November 17, 2005 (UK)
December 27, 2005 (US)
Publication place| United States
Media type| Print (hardback)
Pages| 320 pages
ISBN| 0-8050-7714-6
OCLC| 57475869

Dewey Decimal

| 813/.54 22
LC Class| PS3551.U77 B76 2006
Preceded by| Oracle Night
Followed by| Travels in the Scriptorium

The Brooklyn Follies is a 2005 novel by Paul Auster.

## Plot summary

[edit]

59-year-old Nathan Glass returns to Park Slope in Brooklyn, New York after his wife has left him. He is recovering from lung cancer and is looking for "a quiet place to die". In Brooklyn, he meets his nephew, Tom, whom he has not seen in several years. Tom has seemingly given up on life and has resigned himself to a string of meaningless jobs as he waits for his life to change. They develop a close friendship, entertaining each other in their misery, as they both try to avoid taking part in life.

When Lucy, Tom's young niece who initially refuses to speak, comes into their lives, there is suddenly a bridge between their past and their future that offers both Tom and Nathan some form of redemption.

The Brooklyn Follies contains the classic elements of a Paul Auster novel. The main character is a lonely man, who has suffered an unfortunate reversal. The narrative is based on sudden and randomly happening events and coincidences.[1] "It is a book about survival" as Paul Auster says.

The novel was published in Danish in May 2005, under the name Brooklyn Dårskab. It was published in English in November 2005. The Traditional Chinese version appeared in October 2006 with the title slightly altered as Mr. Nathan in Brooklyn.

## External links

[edit]

* An interview and a collection of essays on Auster's The Brooklyn Follies (English and French)

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "The Brooklyn Follies (review)". Archived from the original on 2010-05-09. Retrieved 2010-06-23.

* v
* t
* e

Works by Paul Auster

Fiction|

* Squeeze Play (1982)
* The New York Trilogy (1987)
* In the Country of Last Things (1987)
* Moon Palace (1989)
* The Music of Chance (1990)
* Leviathan (1992)
* Mr. Vertigo (1994)
* Timbuktu (1999)
* The Book of Illusions (2002)
* Oracle Night (2003)
* The Brooklyn Follies (2005)
* Travels in the Scriptorium (2006)
* Man in the Dark (2008)
* Invisible (2009)
* Sunset Park (2010)
* 4 3 2 1 (2017)
* Baumgartner (2023)

Screenplays|

* The Music of Chance (1993)
* Smoke (1995)
* Blue in the Face (1995)
* Lulu on the Bridge (1998)
* The Inner Life of Martin Frost (2007)

Memoir|

* The Invention of Solitude (1982)
* Hand to Mouth (1997)
* The Story of My Typewriter (2002)
* Winter Journal (2012)
* Report from the Interior (2013)

Other|

* A Tomb for Anatole (1983)
* The Red Notebook (1995)
* Here and Now (2013)
* A Life in Words (2017)
* Talking to Strangers (2019)
* Burning Boy (2021)
* Bloodbath Nation (2023)

* v
* t
* e

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

Characters|

* Hester Prynne
* Roger Chillingworth
* Arthur Dimmesdale

Film|

* 1908
* 1911
* 1913
* 1917
* 1922
* 1926
* 1934
* 1973
* 1995

Other media|

* 1896 opera
* 2016 opera
* 1979 TV miniseries

Adaptations|

* The Holder of the World (1993 book)
* In the Blood (1999 play)
* Fucking A (2000 play)
* Easy A (2010 film)

Related|

* Angel and Apostle
* The Brooklyn Follies
* Pink permits
* The Minister's Wooing
* Roger's Version

This article about a 2000s novel is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

See guidelines for writing about novels. Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page.

|

* v
* t
* e

*[OCLC]: Online Computer Library Center number
*[LC Class]: Library of Congress Classification
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template