Daniel Auster, 44, was found dead of a suspected drug overdose on Tuesday
Paul Auster’s son Daniel died in hospital on Tuesday after he was found unconscious after taking a drug overdose on a platform at a Brooklyn subway station.
NYPD officials confirmed on Thursday that he was found at 9:48 a.m. on the northbound G platform on the Clinton Street subway in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.
He was taken to the hospital but died on Tuesday.
It’s the sad end to a tragic story that began with the death of his 10-month-old daughter, Ruby, in November.
She had been taking fentanyl while her father was napping in their Park Slope apartment. He found her blue and unresponsive upon waking.
Daniel told police at the time he was injecting heroin when the couple lay down to sleep.
His wife, Zuzan Smith, told police she entrusted her daughter to him.
It’s unclear what happened over the next six months, but on April 16, Daniel was charged in his daughter’s death.
He was released on bail and on April 20 – four days after his arrest – he overdosed in the subway station.
Ruby’s mother, Zuzan Smith, has not commented on his death, nor has the Brooklyn District Attorney, whose office released him.
It’s unclear if he was living with Zuzan when he died or if the two were separated.
Daniel Auster, 44, is pictured April 20 as he was arrested in the death of his daughter. He was somehow released on bail and then accidentally overdosed himself six days later. It is unclear where he lived when he died
Daniel Auster’s daughter Ruby (pictured above) was found dead at his home in Park Slope on November 1
The subway platform where Daniel was found unconscious on April 20, four days after his arrest
“On Wednesday, April 20, 2022, at 9:48 a.m. at the Washington Avenue/Clinton Street subway station, law enforcement officers observed an unconscious 44-year-old man on the northbound G platform who was being administered CPR along with FDNY, and the individual was transported by EMS to Brooklyn Hospital in stable condition but was later pronounced deceased on Tuesday, April 26, 2022,” an NYPD spokesman said Thursday.
The New York Post first reported Daniel’s death.
Daniel’s father, Paul Auster, 75, has won numerous international awards for his books, including titles such as The New York Trilogy, The Book of Illusions and Moon Palace. In 2017 he was nominated for a Booker Prize for his novel 4, 3, 2, 1, and his work has been translated into more than forty languages.
In Auster’s 1995 film Smoke, about the lives of people who frequented a Brooklyn tobacconist, starring Harvey Keitel and William Hurt, Daniel played the role of a book thief.
His mother is author and translator Lydia Davis, 74.
Daniel regularly posted photos of his wife and daughter Ruby before their deaths last year
Auster’s stepmother Siri Hustevdt leaves her home in Park Slope on Thursday. No one in the family has commented on his death
Daniel Auster can be seen in a photo with his father Paul, in a shot from his youth
Davis and Paul Auster divorced in 1978; In 1982 he remarried and married author Siri Hustvedt and the couple have one daughter together, musician Sophie Auster, 34.
Daniel’s father, Paul Auster, is one of America’s most famous authors
A woman believed to be Siri was spotted leaving the couple’s Park Slope home on Thursday.
No one in the family commented on Ruby’s death, Daniel’s arrest or death earlier this week.
During his teenage years, Auster began going to clubs in New York City and became heavily involved with drugs, according to The New Yorker.
In 1996, at the age of 18, Auster was present at the home when a drug dealer, Andre ‘Angel’ Melendez, was murdered by ‘Club Kid Killer’ Michael Alig, a former nightclub promoter, and his roommate Robert Riggs.
Auster received $3,000 of Melendez’s money in exchange for his silence.
He later pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property and received five years probation.
Auster had a string of arrests, including multiple drug possession charges in 2008 and 2010.
In 2009, he was charged with petty theft and possession of stolen property.
New York author Paul Auster’s troubled son, Daniel, has been charged in connection with the death of his young daughter from a drug overdose. He was found dead on Tuesday
‘Club Kid Killer’ Michael Alig, who was a former nightclub promoter, is pictured. In 1996, he murdered a drug dealer, Andre ‘Angel’ Melendez, at an apartment where Auster was present. Auster was paid $3,000 to keep silent and later received five years probation. Alig was found dead of an accidental heroin overdose on Christmas Eve 2020 at the age of 54
Auster claimed in April his baby daughter died of an overdose of fentanyl after he took heroin and then napped with the child by his side while his wife worked, a court heard.
The vivid report Auster allegedly gave to the NYPD was shared by Assistant District Attorney Tien Tran at his manslaughter hearing.
The infant’s mother, Zuzan Smith, told police that her daughter Ruby was awake and alert when she left her in Auster’s care and went to work.
A criminal complaint obtained by says Auster told police that shortly after Smith left her home, he injected heroin and then went to bed with the child by his side for a nap.
When he awoke from his nap, she was “blue, lifeless and unresponsive,” according to the complaint.
The prosecutor said the girl had enough drugs in her system to “knock an adult unconscious.”
It’s still unclear how the girl took the drugs, but Auster confessed he kept heroin in his bathroom.
At the time, his attorney, James Godfrey, told the New York Times that he was recently sober and on drug treatment.
“This case is painfully tragic and Mr. Auster remains devastated at the loss of his beloved daughter Ruby,” the newspaper’s attorney said.
“Drug use disorders are a problem that affects countless families every year and we caution the public not to jump to conclusions.”
Auster can be seen in many photos posing or cuddling with his little girl
Auster’s Instagram page was full of pictures of his daughter and her mother
The trio dressed up for Halloween in a scene from The Wizard of Oz, starring Daniel as Tin Man and his wife as Dorothy
An autopsy performed a few days later by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner revealed that Ruby died of acute intoxication caused by the combined effects of fentanyl and heroin.
Auster, who worked as a landscape gardener, posted photos of his child and Smith to his Instagram page before flying to Mexico and Colombia in January.
In his travels, he seemed to backpack like a college student and catch several raves.
Auster and his father appeared to have become estranged, but Auster wrote Daniel into his work.
Auster, pictured here being taken to court on his charges, gave the 10-month-old girl Narcan to revive her after he woke to find her “blue, lifeless and unresponsive”.
Auster, 44, is refusing to face the cameras after being charged with manslaughter, manslaughter by negligence and endangering the welfare of a child after his young daughter took his heroin while he was napping
In his 2004 novel Oracle Night, the book is narrated by a writer named Trause, whose son is a drug addict and terrorizes his stepmother.
During a 2006 Guardian interview, Paul Auster’s second wife Siri Hustvedt, who is also a writer, refused to talk about her stepson.
‘Yes. You know, I’m not going to talk about that, no. No,” she said, and her eyes reportedly began to water.
“You know, I’m married to a writer, and that – writing – is a strange endeavor.
“It’s something we both support very strongly.
“I was always behind Paul and he was always behind me.
“I have a very strong family.”