The Music of Chance

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An "exceptional" (Los Angeles Times) novel of fate, loyalty, responsibility, and the real meaning of freedom with "all the suspense and pace of a bestselling thriller" (The New York Times), from renowned author Paul Auster "A rich, dazzling performance . . . a tour de force about freedom and imprisonment, motion and stasis, order and randomness . . . its story beautifully paced and shaped, its tone powerfully ominous."-The Wall Street Journal FINALIST FOR THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD In a Pennsylvania meadow, a young fireman and an angry gambler are forced to build a wall of fifteenth-century stone. For Jim Nashe, it all started when he came into a small inheritance and left Boston in pursuit of "a life of freedom." Careening back and forth across the United States, waiting for the money to run out, Nashe meets Jack Pozzi, a young man with a temper and a plan. With Nashe's last funds, they enter a poker game against two rich eccentrics. But when their plans backfire, Jim and Jack are indentured by their elusive marks, who order them to erect a meaningless wall with bricks gathered from ruins of an Irish castle. Time passes, their debts mount, and anger builds as the two struggle to dig themselves out of their Kafkaesque serfdom. In Paul Auster's world of fiendish bargains and punitive whims, where chance is a shifting and powerful force, there is nonetheless redemption in Nashe's resolute quest for justice and his capacity for love.

Reviews

A tour de force about freedom and imprisonment, motion and stasis, order and randomness . . . its story beautifully paced and shaped, its tone powerfully ominous.The Wall Street Journal

You wont read much better writing anywhere on the lure of the open roadand it catches the reader in a surprisingly strong spell. Its further evidence that Auster is one of the few contemporary American novelists whose work is both original and interesting."The Washington Post

Entertaining, provocative, and resonant . . . Auster can write with the speed and skill of a self-assured pool player, sending one bizarre event ricocheting neatly and unexpectedly into the next.The New York Times

Praise for Paul Auster:

One of the great American prose stylists of our time.New York Times

Auster really does possess the wand of the enchanter.New York Review of Books

One of the great writers of our time.San Francisco Chronicle

Contemporary American writing at its best.New York Times Book Review, on Invisible

A literary original who is perfecting a hybrid genre of his own.Wall Street Journal

Author Bio

Paul Auster was the bestselling author of 4 3 2 1, Sunset Park, The Book of Illusions, Moon Palace, and The New York Trilogy, among many other works. In 2006, he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature. His other honors include the Prix Medicis etranger for Leviathan, the Independent Spirit Award for the screenplay of Smoke, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Burning Boy, and the Carlos Fuentes Prize for his body of work. His novel 4 3 2 1 was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His work has been translated into more than forty languages. Paul Auster died in 2024.