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Siri Hustvedt’s Ghost Stories Debuts in German, A Portrait of Love, Grief and Paul Auster’s Last Months

The remembrance draws on diaries, emails, letters to Auster’s newborn grandson to probe private grief under public gaze.

Overview

  • Rowohlt publishes the German translation in March 2026, with the English original slated for May 2026.
  • Hustvedt chronicles home palliative care after Auster’s advanced lung cancer and their shared life she calls “cancerland.”
  • Primary materials include dated diary fragments, detailed emails to friends, and Auster’s final letters to his grandson Miles.
  • The book addresses Hustvedt’s distress over news of Auster’s April 30, 2024 death spreading online, attributing the initial public post to her son‑in‑law Spencer.
  • Reviewers describe a hybrid work that melds a 43‑year literary partnership, accounts of eerie ‘presences,’ and family trauma, translated by Grete Osterwald and Uli Aumüller.