“This may be the last thing I write.” The American writer Paul Auster, 76, confides this in a long interview with the English newspaper «The Guardian» on the eve of the release of his new novel «Baumgarten» (in Italy it will be published with the same title by Einaudi on Tuesday 21 November). It was towards the end of last year, when Auster was finishing «Baumgartner», that he began to have «mysterious fevers that hit me in the afternoon».
He was initially diagnosed with pneumonia, before going down some “dead ends” regarding long Covid and finally receiving a cancer diagnosis. «Since then the treatments have been incessant and I have no longer worked. I faced a rigor that produced miracles and also great difficulties”, states the writer in the interview. In March of this year, Auster’s wife, the writer Siri Hustvedt, announced on Instagram that the writer had been “bombarded with chemotherapy and immunotherapy” and that the couple was living in what she described as ” Cancerlandia”. As for “Cancerlandia”, Auster states that there are no maps and it is not known if the passport is valid to leave this unknown land: «However, there is a guide who contacts you right at the beginning. He checks that the name is correct and then says: “I’m from the oncology police. You have to follow me”. And what do you do? You say: “Okay”. You have no choice, because he tells you that if you refuse to follow him he will kill you. I have said: “I prefer to live. Take me wherever you want”. And since then I have followed that path.”