So begins The Invention of Solitude, Paul Austers moving and personal meditation on fatherhood. The first section, Portrait of an Invisible Man, reveals Austers memories and feelings after the death of his father, a distant, undemonstrative, almost cold man. As he attends to his fathers business affairs and sifts through his effects, Auster uncovers a sixty-year-old family murder mystery that sheds light on his fathers elusive character.

In The Book of Memory, the perspective shifts from Austers identity as son to his role as father. Through a mosaic of images, coincidences, and associations, the narrator, A, contemplates his separation from his son, his dying grandfather, and the solitary nature of storytelling and writing.