'A great mind that is constantly exploring, searching, "becoming" . . . an impressive collection' Elif Shafak, Observer

'A phenomenal book' Claire Kohda Hazelton, Guardian

'We are fortunate to have Hustvedt voicing doubt so intelligently' Lara Feigel, Financial Times

A TRAIL-BLAZING AND INSPIRING COLLECTION OF ESSAYS ON ART, FEMINISM, NEUROSCIENCE AND PSYCHOLOGY FEATURING THE DELUSIONS OF CERTAINTY, WINNER OF THE EUROPEAN ESSAY PRIZE 2019.

Internationally acclaimed as a novelist, Siri Hustvedt is also highly regarded as a writer of non-fiction whose insights are drawn from her broad knowledge in the arts, humanities, and sciences.

In this trilogy of works collected in a single volume, Hustvedt brings a feminist, interdisciplinary perspective to a range of subjects. Louise Bourgeois, Pablo Picasso, Susan Sontag and Karl Ove Knausgaard are among those who come under her scrutiny. In the book's central essay, she explores the intractable mind-body problem and in the third section she reflects on the mysteries of hysteria, synesthesia, memory, perception, and the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard. With clarity, wit, and passion, she exposes gender bias, upends received ideas, and challenges her reader to think again.


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