Meet Mr. Bones, the canine hero of Paul Auster's remarkable novel,
Timbuktu. Mr. Bones is the sidekick and confidant of Willy G.
Christmas, the brilliant, troubled, and altogether original poet-saint
from Brooklyn. Like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza before them, they sally
forth on a last great adventure, heading for Baltimore, Maryland, in
search of Willy's high school teacher, Bea Swanson. Years have passed
since Willy last saw his beloved mentor, who knew him in his previous
incarnation as William Gurevitch, the son of Polish war refugees. But is
Mrs. Swanson still alive? And if she isn't, what will prevent Willy from
vanishing into that other world known as Timbuktu?
Mr. Bones is our witness. Although he walks on four legs and cannot
speak, he can think, and out of his thoughts Auster has spun one of the
richest, most compelling tales in recent American fiction. By turns
comic, poignant, and tragic, Timbuktu is above all a love story.
Written with a scintillating verbal energy, it takes us into the heart
of a singularly pure and passionate character, an unforgettable dog who
has much to teach us about our own humanity.
