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4 3 2 1

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4 3 2 1

By: Paul Auster
Narrated by: Paul Auster
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Summary

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017

Narrated by the award-winning author himself, this epic tale invites you into a world where the fate of a single person takes four different turns. Graceful and eloquent, it's a touching story of how a life can be dramatically altered by the choices you make.

Paul Auster's first novel in seven years. His greatest, most provocative, most heartbreaking, most satisfying work. A sweeping story of birthright and possibility, of love and the fullness of life itself. A masterpiece.

This audiobook contains exclusive bonus material in the form of an interview with the author.

On March 3, 1947, in the maternity ward of Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, Archibald Isaac Ferguson, the one and only child of Rose and Stanley Ferguson, is born. From that single beginning, Ferguson's life will take four simultaneous and independent fictional paths. Four Fergusons made of the same genetic material, four boys who are the same boy, will go on to lead four parallel and entirely different lives. Family fortunes diverge. Loves and friendships and intellectual passions contrast. Chapter by chapter, the rotating narratives evolve into an elaborate dance of inner worlds enfolded within the outer forces of history as, one by one, the intimate plot of each Ferguson's story rushes on across the tumultuous and fractured terrain of mid twentieth-century America. A boy grows up - again and again and again.

As inventive and dexterously constructed as anything Paul Auster has ever written, 4 3 2 1 is an unforgettable tour de force, the crowning work of this masterful writer's extraordinary career.

Paul Auster is the best-selling author of Winter Journal, Sunset Park, Man in the Dark, The Brooklyn Follies, The Book of Illusions and The New York Trilogy, among many other works. In 2006 he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Among his other honours are the Independent Spirit Award for the screenplay of Smoke and the Prix Medicis Etranger for Leviathan. He has also been short-listed for both the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (The Book of Illusions) and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction (The Music of Chance). His work has been translated into more than 30 languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

©2017 Paul Auster (P)2017 Macmillan Audio
Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction
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Critic reviews

"One of the great writers of our time." ( San Francisco Chronicle)
All stars
Most relevant
4321 is so well written and read I've listened to each episode twice over. Auster is bordering on becoming a master.

A Modern Epic

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I cannot describe how much I enjoyed this book - both the concept and the execution.
A new classic

Spectacularly Good

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Wonderful story and it was a real bonus that it was narrated by the author. Particularly enjoyed listening to the interview with the author after the end of the book

Outstanding

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Nor did the title integrate with the story no matter jow much i read and re-read.

I did not understand the significance of the title

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A really interesting premise - one life loved 4 ways - with a great deal of detail: stories within stories. It was, however, a really long book that took me a couple of weeks to get through. And, at times, “getting through” was what it felt like. Not sure why, as the author read it really well - very consistently and at a good pace - but I guess the need to hold several strands of story in my head made it too much of a challenge to really sink into the storyline. Significantly, pay attention to the chapter headings. Each “x.1, x.2” refers to a different version of Ferguson.

Long but rewarding listen

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