Nathan Glass has come to Brooklyn to die. Divorced, retired, estranged from his only daughter, the former life insurance salesman seeks only solitude and anonymity. Then Glass encounters his long-lost nephew, Tom Wood, who is working in a local bookstore--a far cry from the brilliant academic career Tom had begun when Nathan saw him last. Tom's boss is the colorful and charismatic Harry Brightman--a.k.a. Harry Dunkel--once the owner of a Chicago art gallery, whom fate has also brought to the "ancient kingdom of Brooklyn, New York." Through Tom and Harry, Nathan's world gradually broadens to include a new circle of acquaintances. He soon finds himself drawn into a scam involving a forged page of The Scarlet Letter, and begins to undertake his own literary venture, The Book of Human Folly, an account of "every blunder, every pratfall, every embarrassment, every idiocy, every foible, and every inane act I have committed during my long and checkered career as a man."

The Brooklyn Follies is Paul Auster's warmest, most exuberant novel, a moving, unforgettable hymn to the glories and mysteries of ordinary human life.

保羅·奧斯特，1947年齣生於美國新澤西州紐瓦剋市一個猶太裔中産階級傢庭，畢業於哥倫比亞大學。他被視為美國當代最勇於創新的小說傢之一。

保羅·奧斯特年輕時過著漂泊無定的生活，不斷嘗試各種工作。一九七〇年至一九七四年，他客居巴黎，靠翻譯法國文學為生。

保羅·奧斯特的主要作品有小說《布魯剋林的荒唐事》、《紐約三部麯》、《幻影書》等。曾獲法國美第奇最佳外國小說奬、西班牙阿斯圖裏亞斯王儲文學奬，作品被翻譯成三十多種文字。他編劇的電影《煙》於一九九六年獲得柏林電影節銀熊奬和最佳編劇奬。

保羅·奧斯特現定居紐約布魯剋林區。