I was so excited when this event came across my desk: Paul Auster is reading at the downtown library in September! He has a new book coming out called "Man in the Dark."

Here's a summary of it:

While recovering from a car accident, retired book critic August Brill is living with his daughter, recently left by her husband, and granddaughter, whose boyfriend has just died. Unable to sleep, he lies in bed and tells himself stories, struggling to push back thoughts about things he would prefer to forget – like his wife’s recent death and the horrific murder of his granddaughter’s boyfriend.

Brill imagines a parallel world in which America is not at war with Iraq but with itself. In this other America, the twin towers did not fall and the 2000 election results led to secession, as state after state pulled away from the union and a bloody civil war ensued. As the night progresses, Brill’s story grows increasingly intense, and what he is so desperately trying to avoid insists on being told.

If you're unfamiliar with Auster, I recommend starting off with "Oracle Nights." Which, for the music tie-in, was recommended by Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls in one of her blogs.

From a Publishers Weekly review: "…Auster's unique genius is to make the absurd coherent; his stories have a dreamlike, hallucinatory logic."

And he likes to use footnotes that span multiple pages. Win.

I now return you to your regularly-scheduled sparkly indie-pop press. Shoo!