This was so beautifully written, and so sad. I loved the care that the writing took to immerse you in a single moment in a life.

This book was beautifully written and was a dream to read. Although perhaps not the strongest of Paul Auster's novels, it nevertheless kept me engaged and interested throughout with its gentle narration and pace. It tells of a strong central character who never quite gets over the death of his wife, but spends much of the novel revisiting and reviewing their life together, gradually allowing him to overcome his grief. A lovely read, despite (for me) a rather disappointing conclusion, by a very talented writer.

I have always loved Auster’s writing and this latest novel stands up alongside some of his best. The rich detail, the beautifully crafted sentences, and the vivid characters all bring this moving story to life.

As a long-time Auster fan, I was delighted to discover a new title with very much the feel of early-to-mid Auster. Baumgartner tonally reminded me of The Brooklyn Follies, Oracle Night and Moon Palace, always a good thing.

Tender and short, a really gorgeous read pondering through the life of Baumgartner. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

Sy Baumgartner is a widower navigating his bereavement which has left him feeling like a ‘human stump’. The analogy of limb loss and the death of a spouse is used throughout the novel. He aligns the feeling with phantom limb syndrome. His wife, however, does have a presence in the novel. We hear her words through a number of dramatic devices including her writings. These are weaved with Sy’s own memories. Some of which he remembers extremely clearly which is in contrast to his present condition. Despite the subject matter though the book has an optimism and an exuberance in the celebration of the small things in life.

Thanks to Faber and Faber Ltd and Netgalley for a review copy.

Sy Baumgartner, a celebrated author and soon-to-be-retired philosophy professor, has woven the tapestry of his life with a profound and enduring love for his late wife, Anna. Now, as he steps into his seventies, he grapples with the profound absence left by her departure. Anna's presence resonates everywhere, echoing in every spiral of memory and reminiscence, in each vivid recall of the passionate forty years they shared.

A testament to compassion, wit, and an appreciation for the beauty found in the smallest, most fleeting moments of ordinary life, Baumgartner stands out as one of Paul Auster's most radiant works. It is a tender late masterpiece that captures the poignant ache of memory and the enduring impact of a love that transcends time.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

This short contemplative novel just didn’t do it for me. An ageing man’s ruminations and reminiscences, looking back on his life after the recent death of his much-loved and much-missed wife Anna. Trying now to come to terms with a life without her he looks back and mourns. I enjoyed the opening very much, when the protagonist, Sy Baumgartner, author and retired philosophy professor, falls and has to literally pick himself up, but after a while his meandering thoughts became somewhat tedious. The book picked up at the end, but overall I felt a lack of momentum or narrative drive. As a character Baumgartner didn’t engage me nor did the book feel at all original or added anything new to the genre of old man looking back. Nor did I feel the inclusion of some of his wife’s own writings added anything. Tender, yes, reasonably insightful about grief and ageing, and a pleasant enough read, but nothing special.

4.5★
“If the story turns out to be so astounding and so powerful that your jaw drops open and you feel that it has changed or enhanced or deepened your understanding of the world, does it matter if the story is true or not?”

No, I don’t think it matters. When you consider the billions of people living in the world now and the even more billions who preceded us, any story could have been true somewhere along that long line, couldn’t it?

Auster tells Sy Baumgartner’s story in the third person in long, meandering sentences that I enjoyed. The thoughts ran together naturally, and kept the story moving, like Sy’s mind, which never stops thinking, although Sy himself doesn’t actually move very much. He’s feeling old and useless and stumbling.

S.T. Baumgartner is a writer, his late wife Anna was a writer, and he’s always been happily absorbed in his work. But it’s hard now. He’s supposed to be finishing his latest novel but seems to have stalled a bit.

It is ten years since Anna’s accidental death at 58, which he has not completely come to terms with. Her study is as she left it, and his loyal cleaner, Mrs. Flores, keeps it clean and ready for use.

One evening, very late, he gets a phone call from 12-year-old Rosita Flores, sobbing. No, her mother is fine, but her father, a carpenter, just cut two fingers off at work and her mother has gone to the hospital so won’t be coming to work.

The girl is distraught, so Baumgartner keeps talking to her, telling her how well doctors can reattach fingers these days, and calms her down. Meanwhile, he is badly shaken and thinks about all the stories he’s heard about phantom limbs. That’s it! That’s his problem.

“He is a human stump now, a half man who has lost the half of himself that had made him whole, and yes, the missing limbs are still there, and they still hurt, hurt so much that he sometimes feels his body is about to catch fire and consume him on the spot.”

They were both writers, but because he was a Princeton Professor, he had to work on a computer for their digital records. In her office, Anna would clack away happily on her ageing Smith Corona typewriter.

“…mostly because the touch of the keyboard was too soft and made her fingers ache, she said, whereas pounding on the more resistant keys of her portable built up the strength of her hands, so she ditched the Mac by passing it on to the sixteen-year-old son of her oldest first cousin and returned to the tactile pleasures of rolling sheets of paper into the Smith Corona and filling her room with loud woodpecker music.”

Sy missed the “the sound of Anna’s mind singing through her fingers as they hammered the keys” so much that he occasionally went into the room and typed a bit, just to hear the sounds again.

He has dropped out. The sole contact he welcomes is with the woman who delivers parcels, so he orders books he doesn’t want, just to have a short conversation at the door every day.

He’s increasingly absent-minded, suffering from what I’ve heard referred to as The Hereafters. You know, when you enter a room or open the fridge, and say, “What am I here after?”

He decides Anna’s poems should be published. She is already a published author and translator, but she kept her poems mostly to herself.

“…the crackling, effervescent poet he had lived with for close to two-thirds of his life deserved to be read by someone or many someones other than the aging sack of bones that had been her husband.”

It’s a conversational sort of book. He speaks in the present tense as if he’s thinking out loud or talking to us, making it feel very personal. It’s like meeting an old man who becomes more and more interesting as he talks about his late wife, his trips to Ukraine, and his family’s history. We get a sense of his place in the world – fixed.

Then, more things begin actually happening in the present, and he rejoins the world. He is no longer ‘fixed’, and while I don’t begrudge him that, I felt the tone changed.

Of course I don’t want him to live in the past, worshiping at some weird shrine to his late wife. But something seemed different, Whatever it was, while the rest of the book still held my interest, I was less absorbed than before. Or so I thought.

And then, the ending! That was completely unexpected and will keep me thinking about this fellow a lot longer than I thought I would. It also made me rethink my reaction to the change of tone.

All in all, I enjoyed being introduced to Paul Auster and his creation, Baumgartner.

Thanks to #NetGalley and Faber and Faber for a copy of #Baumgartner for review.

I loved the pacing of this book at the beginning. It felt very true to life and kept me running through the pages to see what would happen next. But soon enough it slows down and we are stuck in Baumgartner's mind, going back and forth between his memories, what he's currently experiencing, and his late wife's writings, who died 10 years prior and he's still grieving. The last part of the book (without spoiling anything) picks up the pace again so it left me with a better taste after the meandering of the middle (albeit still beautifully written prose).

Not my favourite Auster book (mostly due to the pacing and meandering in the middle), but something I think lots of readers will enjoy in one cozy afternoon (especially now that it's getting cold and dark outside).

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free eARC of the book in exchange for an honest opinion.

A beautiful portrait of one man's love for his wife and his grief at her passing. Its a book in which nothing really happens but in which so much life is caught between the pages. It's full of feeling and human connection and Baumgartner was a man I was happy to spend some time with.

Baumgartner, the latest book from award winning writer Paul Auster is a touching little episodic novel about Sy Baumgartner, a retired professor of philosophy at Princeton and a widower, his late wife Anna having died in a tragic swimming accident some 12 years prior.

Baumgartner lives alone, happily working in solitude on his latest book, and meeting the challenges of ageing head-on with mixed fortunes.

The reader is afforded a window into Baumgartner’s life through vignettes, many of which centre around his great love for his late wife.

A beautifully reflective novel on grief, love, ageing and memory, that I found surprisingly easy to read. A writer in command of his craft with a gift of a character study that many will love and connect with. 4/5 ⭐️

*Many thanks to the author and publisher for the arc via @netgalley. Baumgartner was published this month. As always, this is an honest review.*

It’s many years since I read Auster’s New York trilogy which I found challenging and rewarding in equal measure. His style is unique and Baumgarter is no exception. The story centres on a retired professor and writer who’s entering his seventies and still grieving for his wife who died 10 years earlier. The opening scenes are almost farcical and thereafter, it’s a meandering amble through a series of life events as he explores loss, love grief and tries to come to terms with himself.

It’s slow and reflective, but the beauty of Auster’s work is his use of language and the structure of his narrative. It feels very personal and it’s a book of memories from a character whose nature is dissembling. It’s reflective and thought provoking; I loved it and will read it again.

An interesting book - pretty short, overall. Here, we have Baumgartner, a widowed man in Princeton, NJ, who is missing the presence of his wife in his life. The opening of the novel is perfectly written - Baumgartner has an accident and this sets off a series of events in his somewhat lonely life. The ending of the novel is good, too, and it almost goes full circle in its narrative. I did find the middle of the book quite meandering and not always that captivating. Perhaps it is somewhat autobiographical - Auster was having treatment for cancer during the writing of the book and I think this is evident in the style of writing. I wanted to love this book - but, for me, it is inconsistent and tries too hard in places, therefore 3 stars.

I loved this.
I am a long term fan of Auster and was so happy to see he'd written a new book and for the opportunity to read this arc.

Baumgartner is the story of a life. A love letter to marriage and literature. An insightful and authentic view on growing older, on grief, on love. The writing is delicious, beautiful, poignant , intelligent and comforting. Auster fits so much in , in so few words, so different to some of his previous books but yet so familiar too. A joy. I have already ordered a copy for my shelf and this is a book I will return to.
Loved it. Baumgartner will stay with me.

4.5-

Baumgartner by Paul Auster

Sy Baumgartner is an aging Princeton Professor, reflecting on his potentially declining memory, physical wellbeing and professional time left. Most of all, he reminisces about the greatest love of his life, his deceased wife Anna, a celebrated poet and writer. The description of their lives together is so tender; almost tangible. How will he live out the remainder of his life? Is there a light on the horizon?

I first came across Paul Auster about 30 years ago with American Trilogy and Moon Palace. The first few pages took me back to that slightly off kilter world.
I was also reminded of Philip Roth, when the Baumgartners went on a family trip to see the sights of Washington. Great American writers.

I’m a fan of the author but didn’t like Baumgartner as much as some of his other books such as The New York Trilogy which is an amazing piece of literature. Don’t get me wrong, this is a fairly enjoyable book as far as these things go, I just prefer his other books. I liked the way the book explores the love Baumgartner clearly felt for his late wife. This makes the book shine at times. I also liked the way the book explores Baumgartner getting old and finding new meaning in his life. I supposed I didn’t really connect with Baumgartner as a character which causes a problem as the book is very closely focused through his eyes.

Although I've heard of Paul Auster, I've never read any of his books, and, if this one is typical of his writing, I obviously need to remedy this. I am normally a fast reader but found myself slowing down to Sy's pace to enjoy his thoughts and ruminations on his life and loves and grief at his wife's death. I was therefore quite surprised by the rather abrupt ending, but overall really enjoyed the writing.
Thank you to netgalley and Faber and Faber for an advance copy of this book.

This is a fascinating forensic exploration of memory and getting old. Baumgartner reflects on a long live well-lived, bringing to life characters and incidents from his past.

As he explores the meaning and the depth of his relationships he is settling the past and looking forward to new chapters, when his plans are abruptly interrupted.

There is so much to unpick in this thoughtful book, it’s one to treasure.

Paul Auster’s latest novel maintains his penchant for authorial tricks and interpolating himself into the story. As well as ushering characters on and off stage for his protagonist, seventy-something semi-retired philosophy professor Sy Baumgartner, and offering sideways glances, Auster pops up as a branch of the lesser-known side of the family tree on a trip to Ukraine.

Unsurprisingly for a writer many decades into a career, this novel is also all about writing. Baumgartner is working on a new work about the duality of consciousness; his wife’s papers include autobiography, unpublished novels and poetry. A younger academic wants to make her the subject of a research project. Both Baumgarnter and his wife Anna, like Auster and Siri Hustvedt, are at the later stages of a life dominated by the written word.

On the whole though, Auster plays it straight in a novel that could be seen as his homage to the campus novel of Roth, Updike and De Lillo. Baumgartner’s academic career is really just a backdrop to the defining theme of his life: his glorious thirty-year marriage to translator, poet and editor Anna. Anna’s sudden death catapults Baumgartner into the story, which we join in a series of small humiliations that add up to an exploration of grief not as something which sweeps one away, but something which is present in every waking moment - from piling up Amazon orders in order to engineer opportunities to speak to the deliverer every day to burning a hand on a pan that has somehow still survived from their first household purchases together.

The pace slows and the action becomes more internal after this first section, as Baumgartner sifts through Anna’s papers - initially just as a coping strategy, along with his refolding of her clothes. Then as part of a project that perhaps will allow him finally to move on. Baumgartner’s thoughts range far and wide, from childhood and their early life together. Auster’s portrayal of the grief and loneliness that follows the death of a partner is vivid and true, as does his depiction of how age can render one even more desperate to grasp a chance of happiness.

If Auster can’t match the urgency of Sy’s awful day of chance encounters, comical injuries and small humiliations, there’s a fascination in seeing Auster, a writer all about control and structure, loose the stays and explore the mental drifting and sifting from past to present to past again that old age brings. For those who have found Auster forbidding, this is a great entry point. For those who love his Russian doll structures and intertextual playfulness, here’s a chance to see him let his hair down.