Ghostly Encounters: Siri Hustvedt on Sensing Paul Auster After His Death
"I felt Paul on the stairs. I felt him walk into the room. I felt him look at me and I was filled with joy."
In a deeply personal revelation, American author Siri Hustvedt has described experiencing a profound sense of her late husband, Paul Auster, following his death in April 2024. Auster, a celebrated novelist, passed away at age 77 due to complications from lung cancer.
A Familiar Presence
Hustvedt recounted a vivid encounter shortly after Auster's funeral. While lying on their bed, she felt him enter the room.
"I felt him walk into the room. I felt him look at me."
She later discovered that these "grief hallucinations" are surprisingly common, affecting between 30% and 60% of bereaved people. Hustvedt attributes the phenomenon to the nervous system's response to the profound absence of a loved one. In the months following his death, she also reported smelling cigar smoke, a scent strongly associated with her husband.
A Life Intertwined
Hustvedt and Auster first met in 1981 at a poetry reading and married the following year. The couple shared a daughter, Sophie, born in 1987.
A Memoir of Loss and Love
Hustvedt’s latest work, Ghost Stories: A Memoir, reflects on their life together and his final months. The book includes letters Auster wrote, including poignant messages to their grandson. Notably, Hustvedt revealed that, before his death, Auster had expressed a wish to return as a ghost.
"It's a relatively common phenomenon among the bereaved."
Following his passing, Hustvedt found solace in writing. "The only thing I could write about was what we had been through," she said, channeling her grief into the memoir that captures both their shared history and the haunting experience of loss.