Collected Screenplays

This collection of Paul Auster screenplays brings together the film work of a writer whose novels have earned him the reputation as 'one of America's most spectacularly inventive writers.' (Times Literary Supplement) Auster has also brought this sense of restless invention to the art of screenwriting, producing Smoke, Blue in the Face, Lulu on the Bridge and The Inner Life of Martin Frost.

The prize-winning Smoke tells the story of a novelist, a cigar store manager, and a black teenager who unexpectedly cross paths and end up changing each other's lives in indelible ways. Set in contemporary Brooklyn, Smoke directly inspired Blue in the Face, a largely improvised comedy shot in a total of six days.Lulu on the Bridge is both a thriller and a fairy tale: when jazz musician Izzy Maurer is accidentally hit by a bullet during a performance in a New York club, he is led on a journey into the strange and sometimes frightening labyrinth of his soul. The Inner Life of Martin Frost follows the mysterious and unsettling experiences that befall writer Martin Frost when he borrows a friend's country house and sets out to write a story about elusive and impossible love.

The volume also contains production notes, as well as interviews with Paul Auster about his work in film.

Auteur

Paul Auster (1947-2024) was the bestselling author of The New York Trilogy, Sunset Park, The Book of Illusions, Moon Palace and 4 3 2 1, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Among his many international honours were the Prix Médicis Étranger, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature and the Carlos Fuentes Prize, given in recognition of his body of work. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He lived in Brooklyn, New York.