An old man sits in a room, with a single door and window, a bed, a desk and a chair. Each day he awakes with no memory, unsure of whether or not he is locked into the room. Attached to the few objects around him are one-word, hand-written, labels and on the desk is a series of vaguely familiar black-and-white photographs and four piles of paper. Then a middle-aged woman called Anna enters and talks of pills and treatment, but also of love and promises. Who is this Mr Blank, and what is his fate? What does Anna represent from his past - and will he have enough time to ever make sense of the clues that arise? After the huge success of The Brooklyn Follies, Travels in the Scriptorium sees Auster return to more metaphysical territory. A dark puzzle, and a game that implicates both reader and writer alike, it is an ingenious exploration of language, responsibility and the passage of time.

《孤獨及其所創造的》是保羅．奧斯特的回憶錄。奧斯特的寫作生涯初期十分潦倒，父親驟逝、婚姻失敗。他在這個時期完成了本書，對父親的身分和創作的孤獨，有著毫不躲藏地自我沉思和環環相扣的精準隱喻。其中，〈一個隱形人的畫像〉描述作者接到父親死訊之後，對父親的回憶，文字細膩，充滿戲劇般的張力，故事詭譎，引人入勝。
作家的父親活得像個隱形人，
他去世時，人們覺得他彷彿不曾活過。
作家回到老家，整理父親的遺物，
此時他才逐漸解開
這位隱形人的畫像為何如此孤獨......。
十五年來，他一直獨居，頑強、魯鈍，彷彿不受這個世界影響。他不像一個佔據空間的人，到像以人的形式出現的一塊無法貫穿的空間。這個世界自他身邊彈開，在他面前碎裂，有時依附著他——但不曾貫穿他。十五年來，他經常獨自一人在一棟巨大的房子出沒，也在那棟房子裡離開人世。——保羅．奧斯特

本書的書名來在故事主人翁Orr正在寫的一小說，並且預告小說本身有一種預測未來的能力，不但能反映現實，而且還能形束現實狀況，在小說中魔力與無能間始終呈現拉鋸戰，就像Orr小說裡的一段話”隨機任意性不斷地在日常生活中緊緊跟隨著我們，並且毫無理由地將人的生命就這樣子帶走了。”34歲的小說家Orr因為一場大病險些喪命，病癒之後他買了一本記事本開始生活在自我構築的創作生活中，他的婚姻與他對於現實生活的信念卻開始動搖。Paul Auster本身在小說、詩、劇作與電影等多重才華，並被視為當代勇於創新的小說家。這是他第11本小說創作，故事本身似懷舊的靈異色彩故事，卻是現實人物的寫照。實驗性的寫作風格與題材讓Paul Auster在現今的美國文壇上仍相當受到重視。

Paul Auster’s greatest, most heartbreaking and satisfying novel―a sweeping and surprising story of birthright and possibility, of love and of life itself: a masterpiece.
Nearly two weeks early, on March 3, 1947, in the maternity ward of Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, Archibald Isaac Ferguson, the one and only child of Rose and Stanley Ferguson, is born. From that single beginning, Ferguson’s life will take four simultaneous and independent fictional paths. Four identical Fergusons made of the same DNA, four boys who are the same boy, go on to lead four parallel and entirely different lives. Family fortunes diverge. Athletic skills and sex lives and friendships and intellectual passions contrast. Each Ferguson falls under the spell of the magnificent Amy Schneiderman, yet each Amy and each Ferguson have a relationship like no other. Meanwhile, readers will take in each Ferguson’s pleasures and ache from each Ferguson’s pains, as the mortal plot of each Ferguson’s life rushes on.
As inventive and dexterously constructed as anything Paul Auster has ever written, yet with a passion for realism and a great tenderness and fierce attachment to history and to life itself that readers have never seen from Auster before. 4 3 2 1 is a marvelous and unforgettably affecting tour de force.

有人說他像卡夫卡，有人讀出他筆下村上春樹的感性
一本藍色筆記本，9天的時間，將小說家捲入迷離的神祕世界。大病初癒幾個月後，三十四歲的小說家西德尼．厄爾走進布魯克林區卡柏高地的文具店，買了一本藍色筆記本。那天是一九八二年九月十八日，自此之後的九天之內，厄爾深受這本空白筆記本的蠱惑，陷入了一個詭異離奇的世界。
一連串詭譎的事件幾乎毀了現實生活中的婚姻，他的健康也大受影響。西德尼在筆記本上振筆疾書了幾小時之後，他太太為什麼無緣無故在計程車?痛哭失聲？文具店張老闆為什麼隔天忽然結束營業？
一本一九三八年華沙地區的電話簿、和一本主角能預知未來的舊小說，兩者之間有何關聯？憎惡與恨意到什麼地步會引發暴力的火苗？原諒與寬容到什麼程度才是愛情的表徵？
本書為保羅．奧斯特的第十一本小說，令人著迷，讀來雖像老派的鬼故事，但小說中卻無鬼魂，只有一群有血有肉、鎮日遊走於擾人現實之境的尋常人物。本書探索時間的本質，帶領讀者穿越主角的想像迷宮，全書精采絕倫，顯現驚人的原創力，再度肯定奧斯特在今日美國文壇的聲譽。

On March 3, 1947, in the maternity ward of Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, Archibald Isaac Ferguson, the one and only child of Rose and Stanley Ferguson, is born. From that single beginning, Ferguson’s life will take four simultaneous and independent fictional paths. Four Fergusons made of the same genetic material, four boys who are the same boy, will go on to lead four parallel and entirely different lives. Family fortunes diverge. Loves and friendships and intellectual passions contrast. Chapter by chapter, the rotating narratives evolve into an elaborate dance of inner worlds enfolded within the outer forces of history as, one by one, the intimate plot of each Ferguson’s story rushes on across the tumultuous and fractured terrain of mid twentieth-century America. A boy grows up—again and again and again.

Paul Auster’s signature work, The New York Trilogy, consists of three interlocking novels: City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room—haunting and mysterious tales that move at the breathless pace of a thriller.