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