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Travels in the Scriptorium

By Paul Auster

(105)

| Hardcover | 9780805081459

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Book Description

A man pieces together clues to his past—and the identity of his captors—in this fantastic, labyrinthine novel
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 Continue

A man pieces together clues to his past—and the identity of his captors—in this fantastic, labyrinthine novel
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.

Critics

  • Spare with the details

    Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster Faber, £12, pp130 An old man. A plain room. A stack of documents and photographs. A procession of visitors entering, speaking in elliptical fashion and leaving again. Paul Auster's slender new novel is not si ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

  • Where's the exit?

    Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster 132pp, Faber, £12.99 An old man sits alone in an empty room. He has no idea how he came to be there, or for how long he will be detained. There are a few bare items of furniture: a bed, a desk, a table lamp, ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

2 Reviews

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  • 1 person find this helpful

    Not my style

    I read two of Paul Auster's books, this one and the Red notebook and in both instances I was quite disappointed. I find his style of writing somewhat empty and failing to engage, over descriptive and pointless. Travels in the Scriptorium is a mystery left unsolved...

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    Thais said on Nov 18, 2007 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • Paul Auster's worst book. I've read (and I loved) almost every one of his books so far but I'm doubting of reading de new ones.

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    Agustín said on Dec 2, 2008 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

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ISBN Edition List Sale Seller
9780805081459 Hardcover $22.00 $18.81 bn.com
$22.00 -- The Book Depository
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