Meny
Portrait image of Paul Auster Photo: Ola Erikson / Forflex

Sample of authors

Auster, Paul

American author from a Jewish family, born in Newark, New Jersey. His parents, Queenie and Samuel Auster, came from Poland. His father worked as a landlord. The family lived a simple middle-class life, but the marriage was unhappy. Queenie was thirteen years younger than Samuel when she married, and the couple were on the whole strangers to each other. Queenie Auster wanted to leave her husband,...

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Literary figures

Erlendur Sveinsson

Gender: Male

A detective inspector in Reykjavík, and the main character in a row of police novels by Arnaldur Indriðason. Erlendur – his surname, Sveinsson, is rarely named as is customary in Iceland – is a skilful and empathetic police officer, but rather tired and sometimes anxiety-ridden. One reason is that he left his family when the children were small, for reasons that he can’t himself remember. His ex-w...

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