True Tales of American Life

Paul Auster

Faber & Faber, 2002 - Oral history - 480 pages

Chosen by Paul Auster out of 4000 stories submitted to his radio programme on National Public Radio, these 180 stories provide an illuminating portrait of America in the 20th century. The selection requirement of the stories was that they should be true and not previously published.

About the author

Paul Auster is the best-selling author of Invisible, Moon Palace, Mr Vertigo, The Brooklyn Follies, The Book of Illusions and The New York Trilogy, among many other works. In 2006 he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Among his other honours are the Independent Spirit Award for the screenplay of Smoke and the Prix Medicis Etranger for Leviathan. He has also been short-listed for both the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (The Book of Illusions) and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction (The Music of Chance). His work has been translated into more than thirty languages.

He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Bibliographic information

• Title: True Tales of American Life
• Editor: Paul Auster
• Contributors: Nelly Reifler, National Public Radio (U.S.), National Story Project (U.S.)
• Edition: 4, reprint, revised
• Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2002
• ISBN: 0571210708, 9780571210701
• Length: 480 pages