Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14669 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Sunday Telegraph
'Astonishing...This passionately conceived, coolly delivered work is almost certainly the best American novel you will read all year.'

Review
'Beautifully thought through, deeply serious and enormously intelligent' (Jane Smiley, Guardian )

'This passionately conceived, coolly delivered work is almost certainly the best American novel you will read all year . . . not to be missed' (Melissa Katsoulis, Sunday Telegraph )

'A mystery story that develops into a subtle and complex novel . . . sharp, confident, tolerant and civilised' (Tom Deveson, Sunday Times )

'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' (Viv Groskop, Observer )

'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' (John de Falbe, Literary Review )

‘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' (Economist )

'A novel of deep wisdom and storytelling' (Lucy Beresford in New Statesman )

'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'

The Times
'Masterful...by turns abstract and realistic, intimate and alienating, effulgent and bleak, concise and blurry, straightforward and elusive'

Customer Reviews

Curate's egg
This is an intelligent book and contains a deal of interesting insights into the history and day to day lives of a modern and well educated American family. There was enough to keep me reading until the end of the book and yet I don't think I would read it again. For me, the book just contains too many characters, only some of which are drawn in sufficient detail to be able to relate to. There are just too many fragments of story and this makes it difficult, at times, to remember what is going on and who is being discussed. My view, and it's only that, is that concentrating more time on fewer characters would have produced a better and more satisfying read.

Complex and richly rewarding book
I loved this book. It is a haunting narrative about family, immigration and identity. I couldn't disagree more with the other reviewers, who sound envious of Hustvedt's starry intellectual gifts and emotional depth.The way the author moves between the generation of family members who have made apparently successful lives in New York, and the struggles of the first generation who live and in the rural midwest, and who suffered great privation, moved me deeply.

Beautiful.
I adored this. I bought it based on the line on the back:

"My sister called it `the year of secrets,' but when I look back on it now, I've come to understand that it was a time not of what was there, but of what wasn't."

& the cover. I judge a book by its cover. Oh yes, I do. I was not disappointed. It is beautifully written. The characters are well thought out & I adored each & everyone of them. This is rare as I usually end up hating many a character.
I found it wonderful how the events of the day where intercepted with excerts from the father's journal & letters. I read at the back that these were taken from the author's own father's writings. I find that very special.
I had never read anything by Suri Hustvedt before, but I will certainly be looking out for more.