In 1985, Paul Auster's City of Glass introduced an important new voice in American postmodern fiction. After City of Glass, Auster wrote Ghosts (1986) and The Locked Room (1986). In 1987, these works were collected in a single volume as The New York Trilogy, a trio of meta-fictional detective stories full of experimental and ironic postmodern touches. In City of Glass, a strange case involving multiple layers of Paul Auster himself inserted in the book threatens the sanity of a writer turned private investigator. Ghosts finds a PI named Blue, trained by a man named Brown, tasked by a man called White to investigate a certain Black on Orange Street. The Locked Room, whose title references a popular scenario in mystery fiction, follows a struggling writer who steals the work and life of a vanished colleague.
Paul Auster has since published numerous works of fiction, screenplays, essays, memoirs and more. His major novels include Moon Palace (1989), The Music of Chance (1990), The Book of Illusions (2002), The Brooklyn Follies (2005) and, most recently, 4 3 2 1 (2017). On October 15, French publisher SP Books released a limited edition of The New York Trilogy featuring Auster's original handwritten manuscript and notes. SP Books, known for similar treatments to classic novels like Jane Eyre and Frankenstein, has 1,000 hand-numbered copies of The New York Trilogy available in iron gilded slipcases ($200, 9791095457558). --Tobias Mutter
