Here and Now: Letters 2008-2011 - Paperback

by Paul Auster (Author), J. M. Coetzee (Author)

"[A] civilized discourse between two cultivated and sophisticated men. . . . It's a pleasure to be in their company."--Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

"An extended meditation on the processes of friendship, [Here and Now] has something substantive to offer."--The New York Times Book Review

After a meeting at an Australian literary festival brought them together in 2008, novelists Paul Auster and J. M. Coetzee began exchanging letters on a regular basis with the hope they might "strike sparks off each other." Here and Now is the result: a three-year epistolary dialogue that touches on nearly every subject from sports to fatherhood, literature to film, philosophy to politics, from the financial crisis to art, death, marriage, friendship, and love. Their high-spirited and luminous correspondence offers an intimate and often amusing portrait of these two men as they explore the complexities of the here and now and reveal their delight in each other's friendship on every page.

Author Biography

Paul Auster was the bestselling author of 4 3 2 1, Sunset Park, The Book of Illusions, Moon Palace, and The New York Trilogy, among many other works. In 2006, he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature. His other honors include the Prix Médicis étranger for Leviathan, the Independent Spirit Award for the screenplay of Smoke, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Burning Boy, and the Carlos Fuentes Prize for his body of work. His novel 4 3 2 1 was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His work has been translated into more than forty languages. Paul Auster died in 2024.

J. M. Coetzee is the first author to be awarded the Booker Prize twice. The author of Disgrace and Life & Times of Michael K, among many other works, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003. He lives in Adelaide, Australia.