The Sorrows of an American
On sale
2nd February 2012
Price: £9.99
FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF WHAT I LOVED
‘Astonishing . . . almost certainly the best American novel you will read this year’ Sunday Telegraph
‘One of the most profound and absorbing books I’ve read in a long time’ Washington Post
‘Wonderful . . . you have to read it to believe it’ Observer
After their father’s funeral, Erik and Inga Davidsen find a cryptic letter from an unknown woman among his papers, dating from his adolescence in rural Minnesota during the Depression. Returning to his psychiatric practice in New York, Erik sets about reading his father’s memoir, hoping to discover the man he never fully understood.
At the same time, another woman enters Erik’s lonely, divorced life – a beautiful Jamaican who moves into his garden flat with her small daughter. As Erik gets drawn into the cat-and-mouse tactics of someone who appears to be stalking her, he finds out that his sister Inga is also being threatened, by a journalist in possession of a wounding secret from her past.
A multi-layered novel that probes the mysteries of the heart and mind, The Sorrows of an American is compulsive, thought-provoking and profoundly affecting.
‘Almost impossible to put down, and even harder not to re-read’ Independent
‘Beautifully thought through, deeply serious and enormously intelligent’ Guardian
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
‘One of our finest novelists’ Oliver Sacks
‘Reading a Hustvedt novel is like consuming the best of David Lynch’ Financial Times
‘Few contemporary writers are as satisfying and stimulating to read as Siri Hustvedt’ Washington Post
‘Astonishing . . . almost certainly the best American novel you will read this year’ Sunday Telegraph
‘One of the most profound and absorbing books I’ve read in a long time’ Washington Post
‘Wonderful . . . you have to read it to believe it’ Observer
After their father’s funeral, Erik and Inga Davidsen find a cryptic letter from an unknown woman among his papers, dating from his adolescence in rural Minnesota during the Depression. Returning to his psychiatric practice in New York, Erik sets about reading his father’s memoir, hoping to discover the man he never fully understood.
At the same time, another woman enters Erik’s lonely, divorced life – a beautiful Jamaican who moves into his garden flat with her small daughter. As Erik gets drawn into the cat-and-mouse tactics of someone who appears to be stalking her, he finds out that his sister Inga is also being threatened, by a journalist in possession of a wounding secret from her past.
A multi-layered novel that probes the mysteries of the heart and mind, The Sorrows of an American is compulsive, thought-provoking and profoundly affecting.
‘Almost impossible to put down, and even harder not to re-read’ Independent
‘Beautifully thought through, deeply serious and enormously intelligent’ Guardian
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
‘One of our finest novelists’ Oliver Sacks
‘Reading a Hustvedt novel is like consuming the best of David Lynch’ Financial Times
‘Few contemporary writers are as satisfying and stimulating to read as Siri Hustvedt’ Washington Post
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Reviews
Beautifully thought through, deeply serious and enormously intelligent
This passionately conceived, coolly delivered work is almost certainly the best American novel you will read all year . . . not to be missed
A mystery story that develops into a subtle and complex novel . . . sharp, confident, tolerant and civilised
This novel is easily described as wonderful . . . THE SORROWS OF AN AMERICAN feels like a very personal story and is all the more intimate for it . . . her skill lies in convincing the reader that we have seen right inside someone's soul
For all its cerebral riches, this novel is composed with superb artistry, Hustvedt handles the numerous interlocking narratives with immense skill. . . It is proof of Hustvedt's talent that the terrors of this novel feel real
This satisfying and emotionally rich follow-up to Ms Hustvedt's acclaimed WHAT I LOVED treads some similar themes: love and loss; the limits of perception; the drama of dreams; and the need to craft coherent stories from the unreliable fragments of memory. As with her previous novel, Ms Hustvedt's cerebral characters are tenderly drawn, wise and realistic . . . a beautifully sincere examination of the grim traps of over-active minds
A novel of deep wisdom and storytelling
It is a rare writer who can both rouse the mind and grip the heart, and all the while provide the sensuous delights of image and language. In her new novel, as in What I Loved, Siri Hustvedt does that and more . . . a book that's almost impossible to put down, and even harder not to re-read