One morning in January 1979, the author found out his father had died. He then began to write La invencin de la soledad, which, as he says, was the beginning of everything. Somewhere between memory, a settling of scores and the investigation of the family novel, this seminal work is divided in two parts. In Portrait of an Invisible Man we discover a mystery of a murder in the family that occurred sixty years ago, an episode that places suspicion on the cold character of the dead father. In The Book of Memory Auster links his reflection over his role as a son with his own paternity and solitude.