Timbuktu

'Auster's power of empathy is unexpected, crucial, even delightful.'Ali Smith, ScotsmanMeet Mr Bones, the canine sidekick and confidant of Willy G. Christmas, the brilliant, troubled and altogether original poet-saint from Brooklyn, New York. Together, Bones and Christmas sally forth to Baltimore, an a last great adventure in search of Willy's beloved mentor Bea Swanson-who used to know him as William Gurevitch, son of Polish war refugees. But is she still alive?'Few novels are as deligjtful as this..this joy of a book, a ture love story...confirms he has a sense of pathos to match his cleverness.'Eileen Battersby, Irish Times'A howling success.'Mark Sanderson, Mail on Sunday'Lovely... (Auster) is one of our most inventive and least predictable authors.'Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post