Bloodbath Nation

compelling polemic, dismaying and often moving.’ Jake Kerridge, Daily Telegraph

No issue divides Americans more deeply than the debate around guns. Paul Auster begins his examination of gun violence by looking into his own past, knowing first-hand how families can be wrecked by a single deadly act.

Bloodbath Nation traces the origins of America’s obsession with guns through one hundred and eighty years of history. The armed conflict against the native population and the brutal methods used to protect the institution of slavery created a nation that has never fully come to terms with its own past.

This fraught heritage still hovers over the social and political landscape of the present moment. Change is necessary but it seems all but impossible. Auster asks the ultimate question: what kind of country do Americans want to live in? The answer, he argues, will not come from the legislature, but from the American people themselves.

About the Author
Paul Auster was the bestselling author of 4 3 2 1, Sunset Park, The Book of Illusions, Moon Palace and The New York Trilogy. He and Spencer Ostrander collaborated on Bloodbath Nation.

In 2006, he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature. His other honours include the Prix Medicis Étranger for Leviathan, the Independent Spirit Award for the Screenplay of Smoke, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Burning Boy, and the Carlos Fuentes Prize for his body of work. His novel 4 3 2 1 was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker Prize. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and was a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His work was translated into more than forty languages. His final novel, Baumgartner, was published in November 2023. He died on 30 April 2024.

Spencer Ostrander was born in Seattle in 1984. He has done extensive work in all forms of photography and has recently completed two other book projects: Long Live King Kobe with text by Paul Auster and Times Square in the Rain.