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The Music of Chance
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The Music of Chance Paperback - 1991

by Paul Auster

From one of America's most original and startlingly imaginative writers, a novel with "all the suspense and pace of a bestselling thriller".--The New York Times. A fireman and a gambler enter a poker game with two rich eccentrics, "risking everything on the single blind turn of a card". What results is the product of a world of fiendish bargains and punitive whims.


Summary

Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, The Music of Chance follows Jim Nashe who, after squandering an unexpected inheritance, picks up a young gambler named Jack Pozzi hoping to con two millionaires. But when their plans backfire, Jim and Jack are indentured by their elusive marks and are forced to build a meaningless wall with bricks gathered from ruins of an Irish castle. Time passes, their debts mount, and anger builds as the two struggle to dig themselves out of their Kafkaesque serfdom.

New York Times-bestselling author Paul Auster (The New York Trilogy) brings us back into his strange, shape-shifting world of fiendish bargains and punitive whims, where chance is a powerful yet unpredictable force.

From the publisher

An "exceptional" (Los Angeles Times) tale of fate, loyalty, responsibility, and the real meaning of freedom, from the author of the forthcoming 4 3 2 1: A Novel A finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award This "rich and dazzling" (Wall Street Journal) novel follows Jim Nashe who, after squandering an unexpected inheritance, picks up a young gambler named Jack Pozzi hoping to con two millionaires. But when their plans backfire, Jim and Jack are indentured by their elusive marks and are forced to build a meaningless wall with bricks gathered from ruins of an Irish castle. Time passes, their debts mount, and anger builds as the two struggle to dig themselves out of their Kafkaesque serfdom. New York Times-bestselling author Paul Auster (The New York Trilogy) brings us back into his strange, shape-shifting world of fiendish bargains and punitive whims, where chance is a powerful yet unpredictable force.

Details

  • Title The Music of Chance
  • Author Paul Auster
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Reissue
  • Pages 224
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Penguin Books, New York
  • Date 1991-12-01
  • ISBN 9780140154078 / 0140154078
  • Weight 0.39 lbs (0.18 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.88 x 5.04 x 0.61 in (20.02 x 12.80 x 1.55 cm)
  • Ages 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Library of Congress subjects Gamblers - Fiction
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 90050005
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

Media reviews

Citations

  • New York Review of Books, 12/04/2008, Page 36
  • Publishers Weekly, 11/08/1991, Page 0

About the author

Paul Auster is the bestselling author of The New York Trilogy and many other critically acclaimed novels. He was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize in 2006. His work has been translated into more than forty languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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The Music of Chance
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The Music of Chance

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by Paul Auster

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