From the bestselling author of Baumgartner comes "an emotional puzzle of one man's broken heart that the author mends, page by ingenious page" (Elle).

A man's obsession with a silent-film star sent him on a journey into a shadow world of lies, illusions, and unexpected love.

Six months after losing his wife and two young sons in an airplane crash, Vermont professor David Zimmer spends his waking hours mired in a blur of alcoholic grief and self-pity. Then, watching television one night, he stumbles upon a clip from a lost silent film by comedian Hector Mann. Zimmer's interest is piqued, and he soon finds himself embarking on a journey around the world to research a book on this mysterious figure, who vanished from sight in 1929 and has been presumed dead for sixty years.

When the book is published the following year, a letter turns up in Zimmer's mailbox bearing a return address from a small town in New Mexico -- supposedly written by Hector's wife. "Hector has read your book and would like to meet you. Are you interested in paying us a visit?" Is the letter a hoax, or is Hector Mann still alive? Torn between doubt and belief, Zimmer hesitates, until one night a strange woman appears on his doorstep and makes the decision for him, changing his life forever.

This stunning novel plunges the reader into a universe in which the comic and the tragic, the real and the imagined, the violent and the tender dissolve into one another.

"A nearly flawless work... Auster will be remembered as one of the great writers of our time." -- San Francisco Chronicle

• We started tracking this book on May 5, 2012.
• This book was $9.99 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 40 times in the past 4,675 days.
• The current price of this book is $1.99 last checked one day ago.
• The lowest price to date was $1.99 last reached on February 17, 2025.
• This book has been $1.99 5 times since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $11.99 last reached on April 15, 2022.
• This book has been $11.99 2 times since we started tracking it.
• This book is currently at its lowest price since we started tracking it.

• Literature & Fiction

• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 333 Pages
• File Size: 2,487 KB