Paul Auster | 4 3 2 1

The novel opens with the protagonist’s paternal grandfather, a Jewish man from Belarus who immigrates to the United States in the early 1900s. He is eventually killed in a robbery while working as a night watchman. His sons, Stanley, Lew, and Arnold Ferguson open a furniture-appliance store in New Jersey. Stanley marries a photographer’s assistant named Rose Adler, and in 1947, they have a son whom they name Archibald Isaac Ferguson. The narration simply refers to Archibald, the protagonist, as Ferguson. The narrative then begins three alternate timelines of Ferguson’s life. In the first one, his parents live in an apartment in Newark, New Jersey. The brothers’ business fails after Arnold perpetrates a large-scale theft. In the second, his parents live in a house in West Orange, New Jersey. In the third, his parents live in a house in Montclair, New Jersey. Lew attempts to commit an insurance scam by burning down the business, and Stanley is accidentally killed. In the fourth, they live in a large house in Maplewood, New Jersey. Stanley runs the business by himself and is wealthy and successful.