Athletic skills and sex lives and friendships and intellectual passions contrast.

Four identical Fergusons made of the same DNA, four boys who are the same boy, go on to lead four parallel and entirely different lives. From that single beginning, Ferguson’s life will take four simultaneous and independent fictional paths. Nearly two weeks early, on March 3, 1947, in the maternity ward of Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, Archibald Isaac Ferguson, the one and only child of Rose and Stanley Ferguson, is born. Paul Auster’s greatest, most heartbreaking and satisfying novel-a sweeping and surprising story of birthright and possibility, of love and of life itself. New York Times Bestseller, Los Angeles Times Bestseller, Boston Globe Bestseller, National Indiebound Bestseller An incredibly moving, true journey.” -NPR “A stunningly ambitious novel, and a pleasure to read. A monumental assemblage of competing and complementary fictions, a novel that contains multitudes.”- Tom Perrotta, The New York Times Book Review NPR, The Globe and Mail, Kirkus Reviews, Huffington Post, and The Spectator UK Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, The New York Times Book Review, 4 3 2 1 is a marvelous and unforgettably affecting tour de force.* * * Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize * * * Meanwhile, listeners will take in each Ferguson's pleasures and ache from each Ferguson's pains, as the mortal plot of each Ferguson's life rushes on.Īs inventive and dexterously constructed as anything Paul Auster has ever written, yet with a passion for realism and a great tenderness and fierce attachment to history and to life itself that listeners have never heard from Auster before. Each Ferguson falls under the spell of the magnificent Amy Schneiderman, yet each Amy and each Ferguson have a relationship like no other. From that single beginning, Ferguson's life will take four simultaneous and independent fictional paths. Paul Auster's greatest, most heartbreaking and satisfying novel-a sweeping and surprising story of birthright and possibility, of love and of life itself: a masterpiece. This program is narrated by-and includes a bonus interview with-the author. '.listening to 4 3 2 1 in audio is worth the commitment, thanks to the author's easy-on-the-ears baritone' - Newsday

4 3 2 1 by paul auster