The American writer Paul Auster, who became famous with his New York novels populated by fringe and disorienting characters, has been diagnosed with cancer, his wife announced on Saturday.
The 76-year-old writer is being treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, his wife Siri Hustvedt, also a writer, said on Instagram.
“My husband was diagnosed with cancer in December after being ill for the previous months,” she wrote.
“I live in a place I call Cancerland.” “Many people have pushed its limits, either because they are or have been ill themselves, or because they love someone, a parent, child, spouse or friend who has cancer or had,” she added.
Paul Auster is the author of more than thirty books that have been translated into more than 40 languages.
He made his name in 1982 with The Invention of Loneliness, an autobiographical novel in which he attempts to identify his father’s personality.
The novelist achieved his international breakthrough in 1987 with his “New York Trilogy”, a noir novel inspired by the crime genre.
Ms Hustvedt did not say what type of cancer her husband has or what his prognosis is. “Living with someone who has cancer and is being bombarded with chemotherapy and immunotherapy is an adventure of closeness and separation,” she writes.
“It’s not always easy to walk this tightrope…”