Invisible by Paul Auster

University is meant to be one of the best and most carefree times of your life. However Adam Walker, the protagonist of Paul Auster's fifteenth novel, is not so fortunate. It is 1967, and Adam is twenty. He is at Columbia University, diligently doing all he can to fulfill his ambition to be a poet and become more knowledgeable about Medieval Literature, while hoping to avoid the draft to Vietnam. His priorities change upon meeting an unusual couple at a party, as they drag him into their perverse games. Whilst destructive, they open him up to the possibility of other illicit passions. Later that same summer, he witnesses an act of extreme violence. His reaction surprises him. He knows he is no longer the same person and the events of 1967 haunt Adam for the remainder of his life.

Paul Auster's plot driven novel has a complex structure that comprises of four distinct parts, multiple perspectives and focuses upon two years: 1967 and 2007. Invisible is complete with Auster's tropes: a disorientated writing-obsessed protagonist, and elements of crime fiction and absurdism. He excels himself: this is a bold read that engages the emotions and the intellect. [Caroline Walters]