New Releases by Siri Hustvedt

"And who among us would deny Jane Austen her happy endings or insist that Cary Grant and Irene Dunne should get back together at the end of The Awful Truth? There are tragedies and there are comedies, aren''t there? And they are often more the same than different, rather like men and women, if you ask me. A comedy depends on stopping the story at exactly the right moment." Mia Fredrickson, the wry, vituperative, tragic comic, poet narrator of The Summer Without Men, has been forced to reexamine her own life. One day, out of the blue, after thirty years of marriage, Mia''s husband, a renowned neuroscientist, asks her for a "pause." This abrupt request sends her reeling and lands her in a psychiatric ward. The June following Mia''s release from the hospital, she returns to the prairie town of her childhood, where her mother lives in an old people''s home. Alone in a rented house, she rages and fumes and bemoans her sorry fate. Slowly, however, she is drawn into the lives of those around her—her mother and her close friends,"the Five Swans," and her young neighbor with two small children and a loud angry husband—and the adolescent girls in her poetry workshop whose scheming and petty cruelty carry a threat all their own. From the internationally bestselling author of What I Loved comes Siri Hustvedt''s provocative, witty, and revelatory novel about women and girls, love and marriage, and the age-old question of sameness and difference between the sexes.

«Siri Hustvedt, una delle nostre scrittrici più raffinate, è da tempo una brillante esploratrice di mente e cervello. Ma recentemente le sue indagini hanno preso una piega più personale: due anni dopo la morte del padre, mentre parla di lui in pubblico, all''improvviso Siri si trova preda delle convulsioni. È stato un caso di «isteria», un «disturbo da conversione», o un «casuale» attacco epilettico? La donna che trema è il tentativo - stimolante ma insieme divertente, dotto e godibilissimo allo stesso tempo - di rispondere a questa domanda. Un libro che racconta due storie straordinarie: l''odissea della Hustvedt dentro di sé, e verso il punto in cui cervello e mente, neurologia e psichiatria si incontrano nel regno della neuropsicanalisi. Un''odissea non l''ha curata, né portata a conclusioni definitive; ma l''erudita indagine della Hustvedt scava a fondo in quella meraviglia che è il rapporto tra mente e corpo». Oliver Sacks

The author delves into the mysteries of her own neurological condition in a far-ranging memoir that is “graceful, intense, and curiously affirming” (Booklist). While speaking at a memorial event for her father in 2006, novelist Siri Hustvedt suffered a violent seizure from the neck down. Despite her flapping arms and shaking legs, she continued to speak clearly and was able to finish her speech. It was as if she had suddenly become two people: a calm orator and a shuddering wreck. Then the seizures happened again and again. The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves tracks Hustvedt’s search for a diagnosis, one that takes her inside the thought processes of several scientific disciplines, each one of which offers a distinct perspective on her paroxysms but no ready solution. In the process, she finds herself entangled in fundamental questions: What is the relationship between brain and mind? How do we remember? What is the self? In The Shaking Woman, Hustvedt synthesizes her experience and research into a compelling mystery: Who is the shaking woman? In the end, the story she tells becomes, in the words of George Makari, author of Revolution in Mind, “a brilliant illumination for us all.”

Ayant vécu une expérience de dissociation, S. Hustvedt décide, afin d''affronter les mystères du moi, de prendre la mesure de la véritable nature de gouffres invisibles qui sont tapis sous la vie ordinaire. De la neurobiologie à la psychiatrie et à la littérature, une histoire personnelle des pathologies mentales et une réflexion sur les rapports de la maladie avec le geste créateur.

Després de l''èxit de la seva anterior novel·la, finalista del Premi Llibreter, ens arriba l''esplèndida Elegia per un americà, de l''escriptora nord-americana Siri Hustvedt. Reprenent l''angoixa soterrada de les seves obres anteriors, l''autora explora els secrets que marquen les vides d''Erik Davidsen i la seva germana Inga. Tot just després de la mort del seu pare, a través dels diaris que va escriure, els dos germans van descobrint històries que ell havia mantingut amagades en vida. Alhora, ambdós s''embranquen en processos personals dins les seves pròpies vides: Inga descobreix les infidelitats del seu marit mort i Erik s''enamora perdudament de la seva nova veïna, una noia amb una filla de cinc anys que amaga, ella també, un secret terrible que posarà en perill la vida de tots tres.

"Returning to New York from Minnesota, the grieving siblings continue to pursue the mystery behind the note. While Erik''s fascination with his new tenants and emotional vulnerability to his psychiatric patients threaten to overwhelm him, Inga is confronted by a hostile journalist who seems to know a secret connected to her dead husband, a famous novelist. As each new mystery unfolds, Erik begins to inhabit his emotionally hidden father''s history and to glimpse how his impoverished childhood, the Depression, and the war shaped his relationship with his children, while Inga must confront the reality of her husband''s double life."--BOOK JACKET.

From the author of the international bestseller What I Loved, a provocative collection of autobiographical and critical essays about writing and writers. Whether her subject is growing up in Minnesota, cross-dressing, or the novel, Hustvedt''s nonfiction, like her fiction, defies easy categorization, elegantly combining intellect, emotion, wit, and passion. With a light touch and consummate clarity, she undresses the cultural prejudices that veil both literature and life and explores the multiple personalities that inevitably inhabit a writer''s mind. Is it possible for a woman in the twentieth century to endorse the corset, and at the same time approach with authority what it is like to be a man? Hustvedt does. Writing with rigorous honesty about her own divided self, and how this has shaped her as a writer, she also approaches the works of others--Fitzgerald, Dickens, and Henry James--with revelatory insight, and a practitioner''s understanding of their art.

Colección de ensayos en torno a conocidas obras del arte occidental, que tienen en común la seducción de su misterio. Ante la ventana abierta de los lienzos, Siri Hustvedt propone al lector no sólo un paseo por la historia de la pintura, sino también por la vida. Unos textos esclarecedores y plenos de sensibilidad.

"La peinture est là tout d''un coup. Quand je lis un livre, quand j''écoute de la musique ou quand je vais au cinéma, c''est avec le temps que je découvre l''œuvre. Un roman, une symphonie, un film ne prennent leur sens que par la succession des mots, des notes et des images. Les heures peuvent passer, un tableau ne gagnera ni ne perdra la moindre parcelle de lui-même. Il n''a ni commencement, ni milieu, ni fin. J''aime la peinture parce que dans son inaltérable immobilité elle paraît exister en dehors du temps d''une manière impossible à toute autre forme d''expression artistique. Plus j''avance dans mon existence, plus je voudrais mettre le monde en suspens et saisir le présent avant que, dévoré par la seconde suivante, il ne devienne le passé. Un tableau crée l''illusion d''un présent éternel, d''un lieu où mes yeux peuvent se reposer comme si le tic-tac de la pendule avait cessé par magie." SIRI HUSTVEDT (extrait de l''introduction)

In this book, Hustvedt gives us nine essays on the significance of particular works of art, replete with original insights and a few startling discoveries. In her essay on Giorgione''s The Tempest, a painting that has mystified art critics for hundreds of years, the author reinterprets the canvas as a work about art and voyeurism. While looking at The Third of May, she was astonished to discover that Goya had hidden his own self-portrait in a shadowy corner of his iconic masterwork. More than anything, the essays in this book display a true passion for art, from the still lifes of Jean-Baptiste Chardin and Giorgio Morandi to the contemporary works of Joan Mitchell and Gerhard Richter. Hustvedt captures perfectly the pleasure found in giving oneself up to the complexities and ambiguities of painting, discovering new subtleties and surprises the longer one takes the time to look.--Back cover.

Fotografisk billedværk.

En los ensayos de Siri Hustvedt suelen convivir dos características en apariencia contrapuestas: una extrema capacidad analítica de la sociedad y el fenómeno artístico, y un notable interés por lo autobiográfico.

"Em 1975, o historiador da arte Leo Hertzberg visita uma galeria do SoHo, em Nova York, e sente-se atraído por um quadro de William Wechsler, pintor que até então desconhece. Fascinado pela obra, compra o quadro e vai atrás do artista. É o início de uma amizade duradoura. Leo e William vão morar no mesmo prédio, com as respectivas mulheres, e tornam-se pais na mesma época. No entanto, os anos de felicidade serão abalados - primeiro por uma tragédia, depois por um caso de dupla personalidade, que vem à tona lenta e corrosivamente. Vinte e cinco anos depois do primeiro encontro, Leo retraça o envolvimento afetivo com o amigo artista, e revê a história das duas famílias. Hustvedt expõe com maestria a intimidade de um homem que, corroído pelo tempo, tenta dar sentido ao que viveu. Neste thriller psicológico, a autora aborda temas como amizade, amor, arte e esquizofrenia, conduzindo o leitor a regiões obscuras da existência - que, paradoxalmente, podem iluminar toda uma vida. "

In a small Minnesota town, a tale of love and intrigue whose protagonist is Lily Dahl, a young actress. The cafe where she works is a meeting place for eccentrics and a New York artist who has come to paint them, with whom Lily has an affair. But one customer is a murderer and Lily turns sleuth.

From the author of "The Enchantment of Lily Dahl" comes a powerful and heartbreaking novel that chronicles the epic story of two families, two sons, and two marriages.

Seis selectos ensayos, de los que 4 versan sobre la relación entre arte y realidad. El quinto se adentra en el campo del erotismo, y en el último, recuerdos familiares son considerados como influencias en sus trabajos de ficción.

Meditaions on the complex relationship between art and the world.

Lily Dahl es una heroína a la antigua: dura, hermosa y valiente. Siendo adolescente queda fascinada por un exótico forastero. Impulsada hacia un nuevo mundo de aventuras eróticas, Lily se verá envuelta en inexplicables y temerosos actos de locura.

" Pour moi, Klaus demeurait un jeune homme, en dépit du fait que les gens qui me connaissaient sous ce nom ne me prenaient jamais pour un garçon. Le fossé entre ce que j''étais bien obligée d''admettre devant les autres - à savoir : que j''étais une femme - et mes rêves intérieurs ne me dérangeait pas. En devenant Klaus la nuit, j''avais effectivement brouillé mon genre. Le costume, mon crâne tondu et mon visage nu modifiaient la perception que les gens avaient de moi, et à travers leurs yeux je changeais de personnalité. Jusqu''à ma façon de parler changeait quand j''étais Klaus. " Entre ombre et lumière, entre nuit et jour, dans la ville superlative, New York - elle-même personnage à part entière de ces récits -, Iris Vegan la narratrice, fait l''expérience d''étranges rencontres et de singulières transformations de sa propre identité. Polyptyque à quatre volets, les Yeux bandés a marqué, lors de sa publication en 1993, l''entrée en littérature d''un talent subtil et incontestable, celui de Siri Hustvedt.