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FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF WHAT I LOVED AND A WOMAN LOOKING AT MEN LOOKING AT WOMEN
‘A luminous collection of mind-expanding pieces on literary and philosophical themes . . . A book to renew one’s faith in the literary essay’ Robert McCrum, Observer
‘Thoughtful, sensuous essays . . . her enthusiasms are oddly infectious’ Daily Telegraph
In this illuminating and absorbing collection of essays, Siri Hustvedt explores many of the themes that preoccupy her novels: identity and memory, sexuality and mortality, psychology, love and the power of imagination. But here she offers her personal experience – as daughter, sister, mother and wife, student, reader and writer – to illustrate fundamental aspects of our lives as individuals and social beings in the modern world. She draws, too, on the work of Henry James, F Scott Fitzgerald and Charles Dickens, probing their insights into human nature.
Wise, honest and luminously intelligent, this is a book that invites us to look afresh at ourselves and the universe we inhabit.
‘One of the most talented voices in contemporary fiction . . . Hustvedt brings the same visual power, sensuality and intelligence to her collection of essays’ Los Angeles Times Book Review
PRAISE FOR SIRI HUSTVEDT:
‘Hustvedt is that rare artist, a writer of high intelligence, profound sensuality and a less easily definable capacity for which the only word I can find is wisdom’ Salman Rushdie
‘It is Hustvedt’s gift to write with exemplary clarity of what is by necessity unclear’ Hilary Mantel
‘Her novels have received a deserved acclaim. But to my mind, she is even more to be admired as an essayist . . . in this regard I feel that she resembles Virginia Woolf ‘ Observer
‘Few contemporary writers are as satisfying and stimulating to read as Siri Hustvedt’ Washington Post
‘A luminous collection of mind-expanding pieces on literary and philosophical themes . . . A book to renew one’s faith in the literary essay’ Robert McCrum, Observer
‘Thoughtful, sensuous essays . . . her enthusiasms are oddly infectious’ Daily Telegraph
In this illuminating and absorbing collection of essays, Siri Hustvedt explores many of the themes that preoccupy her novels: identity and memory, sexuality and mortality, psychology, love and the power of imagination. But here she offers her personal experience – as daughter, sister, mother and wife, student, reader and writer – to illustrate fundamental aspects of our lives as individuals and social beings in the modern world. She draws, too, on the work of Henry James, F Scott Fitzgerald and Charles Dickens, probing their insights into human nature.
Wise, honest and luminously intelligent, this is a book that invites us to look afresh at ourselves and the universe we inhabit.
‘One of the most talented voices in contemporary fiction . . . Hustvedt brings the same visual power, sensuality and intelligence to her collection of essays’ Los Angeles Times Book Review
PRAISE FOR SIRI HUSTVEDT:
‘Hustvedt is that rare artist, a writer of high intelligence, profound sensuality and a less easily definable capacity for which the only word I can find is wisdom’ Salman Rushdie
‘It is Hustvedt’s gift to write with exemplary clarity of what is by necessity unclear’ Hilary Mantel
‘Her novels have received a deserved acclaim. But to my mind, she is even more to be admired as an essayist . . . in this regard I feel that she resembles Virginia Woolf ‘ Observer
‘Few contemporary writers are as satisfying and stimulating to read as Siri Hustvedt’ Washington Post
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Reviews
'She strides across these pages: a 6ft tall Amazonian New Yorker...by whom we are at once riveted and faintly disconcerted...Hustvedt is a lucid writer, whose spare, elegant prose wears lightly its eclectic reference points.'
'Thoughtful, sensuous essays...her enthusiasms are oddly infectious'
'A luminous collection of mind-expanding pieces on literary and philosophical themes...A book to renew one's faith in the literary essay'
'An intellectual, emotional and elegantly written collection that leaves the reader with plenty to ponder...Her passion for language and literature makes the prose leap from the page...Hustvedt is, quite simply, an extraordinary literary talent. Read it, ponder it, then go read it again.'