Travels in the Scriptorium (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780312426293)

A man pieces together clues to his past--and the identity of his captors--in this fantastic, labyrinthine novel from beloved author Paul Auster.

An old man awakens, disoriented, in an unfamiliar chamber. With no memory of who he is or how he has arrived there, he pores over the relics on the desk, examining the circumstances of his confinement and searching his own hazy mind for clues.

Determining that he is locked in, the man--identified only as Mr. Blank--begins reading a manuscript he finds on the desk, the story of another prisoner, set in an alternate world the man doesn't recognize. Nevertheless, the pages seem to have been left for him, along with a haunting set of photographs. As the day passes, various characters call on the man in his cell--vaguely familiar people, some who seem to resent him for crimes he can't remember--and each brings frustrating hints of his identity and his past. All the while an overhead camera clicks and clicks, recording his movements, and a microphone records every sound in the room. Someone is watching.

Both chilling and poignant, Travels in the Scriptorium is vintage Auster: mysterious texts, fluid identities, a hidden past, and, somewhere, an obscure tormentor. And yet, as we discover during one day in the life of Mr. Blank, his world is not so different from our own.

Author: Paul Auster
ISBN-10: 0312426291
ISBN-13: 9780312426293
Publisher: Picador USA
Language: English
Published: 12/26/2007
Pages: 160
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.40lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.40w x 0.50d

Review Citation(s):
New York Times Book Review 02/03/2008 pg. 28
New York Review of Books 12/04/2008 pg. 36