Paul Benjamin Auster (February 3, 1947 – April 30, 2024) was an American novelist and filmmaker. His writings blend absurdism, existentialism, crime fiction, and the search for identity and human meaning. His most notable works include The New York Trilogy (1987), Moon Palace (1989), The Music of Chance (1990), The Book of Illusions (2002), and The Brooklyn Follies (2005). His books have been translated into more than forty languages.