Discusses the life and death of the author's mother and the effects of time and aging on one's body and memory, and reflects on the changes in sensory perception as the body ages.

"Paul Auster's most intimate autobiographical work to dateIn the beginning, everything was alive. The smallest objects were endowed with beating hearts. Having recalled his life through the story of his physical self in Winter Journal, internationally acclaimed novelist Paul Auster now remembers the experience of his development from within through the encounters of his interior self with the outer world in Report from the Interior. From his baby's-eye...

The first section, "Portrait of an Invisible Man," reveals Auster's memories and feelings after the death of his father, a distant, undemonstrative, almost cold man. As he attends to his father's business affairs and sifts through his effects, Auster uncovers a sixty-year-old family murder mystery that sheds light on his father's elusive character. In "The Book of Memory," the perspective shifts from Auster's identity as son to his role as father....