Paul Auster was born in Newark, New Jersey, to a Jewish American family. In the 1960s, he graduated from Columbia University with degrees in comparative literature. He is a novelist, essayist, poet, and screenwriter. He also co-created the films Smoke (1995) and Blue in the Face (1995) and wrote and directed the films Lulu on the Bridge (1998) and The Inner Life of Martin Frost (2007). Critics often characterize his writing style as cinematic.

Auster is one of the most prolific and acclaimed contemporary American authors, and is often linked to the postmodern tradition. During the 1970s, Auster lived in France, working as translator and book reviewer. His first major work, The Invention of Solitude (1982), was a memoir about his relationship with his father. The publication of his second work, The New York Trilogy, established him as a novelist. His writing often draws from life, referencing real literary and historical works and figures. Authors who have influenced his work include Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Samuel Beckett. In The New York Trilogy, Auster refers to characters from Hawthorne’s and Poe’s works.