“Bloodbath Nation” by Paul Auster: The most violent country in the Western world – culture

On January 23, 1919, Paul Auster’s grandmother shot his grandfather. Not only did she take his life, she also damaged that of her four sons, one of whom, aged nine, witnessed the murder. From then on they had to live with the knowledge of what their mother had done. “The trigger for all this was the pistol.”