Much like the city of Brooklyn, the main character in Paul Auster’s sixteenth novel, SUNSET PARK (Holt, $25), is worn and conflicted. Estranged from his family for the past seven years because of a dark secret, Miles Heller arrives in New York to temporarily escape yet another personal misfortune. As Miles joins three other squatters in a run-down house in Sunset Park, we are introduced to the equally conflicted and bizarre lives of Miles’s housemates, father, mother, and stepmother. Broadening the scope of the novel, Auster employs historical facts from topics such as baseball, publishing, film, and military history to draw his characters together. Auster is at his literary best, delving deep into the consciousness of each character with sharp descriptions and pinpoint metaphors, shedding light on our own individual needs and reminding us that the things that last in life—love, family, friends—will carry us through in the end.