保羅·奧斯特，1947年齣生於美國新澤西州紐瓦剋市一個猶太裔中産階級傢庭，畢業於哥倫比亞大學。他被視為美國當代最勇於創新的小說傢之一。

保羅·奧斯特年輕時過著漂泊無定的生活，不斷嘗試各種工作。一九七〇年至一九七四年，他客居巴黎，靠翻譯法國文學為生。

保羅·奧斯特的主要作品有小說《布魯剋林的荒唐事》、《紐約三部麯》、《幻影書》等。曾獲法國美第奇最佳外國小說奬、西班牙阿斯圖裏亞斯王儲文學奬，作品被翻譯成三十多種文字。他編劇的電影《煙》於一九九六年獲得柏林電影節銀熊奬和最佳編劇奬。

保羅·奧斯特現定居紐約布魯剋林區。

Nathan Glass has come to Brooklyn to die. Divorced, estranged from his only daughter, the retired life insurance salesman seeks only solitude and anonymity. Then Nathan finds his long-lost nephew, Tom Wood, working in a local bookstore - a far cry from the brilliant academic career he'd begun when Nathan saw him last. Tom's boss is the charismatic Harry Brightman, whom fate has also brought to the "ancient kingdom of Brooklyn, New York." Through Tom and Harry, Nathan's world gradually broadens to include a new set of acquaintances - not to mention a stray relative or two - and leads him to a reckoning with his past. Among the many twists in the delicious plot are a scam involving a forgery of the first page of The Scarlet Letter, a disturbing revelation that takes place in a sperm bank, and an impossible, utopian dream of a rural refuge. Meanwhile, the wry and acerbic Nathan has undertaken something he calls The Book of Human Folly, in which he proposes "to set down in the simplest, clearest language possible an account of every blunder, every pratfall, every embarrassment, every idiocy, every foible, and every inane act I had committed during my long and checkered career as a man." But life takes over instead, and Nathan's despair is swept away as he finds himself more and more implicated in the joys and sorrows of others. The Brooklyn Follies is Paul Auster's warmest, most exuberant novel, a moving and unforgettable hymn to the glories and mysteries of ordinary human life.