Paul Austers works enjoy a lasting popularity as examples of latetwentieth century American fiction. Auster criticism however has so far mainly focused on a few selected writings notably the novels of The New York Trilogy and Moon Palace and their characteristics. The writers overall theme as well as his recent works are rarely taken into consideration. This study closes the gap by providing a comprehensive appraisal of this authors complete uvre. By virtue of its detailed analysis of Paul Austers central theme and delineation of its development the writers works can be positioned within the framework of contemporary American literature and a tendency within the general development of postmodernist literature can be made out.