FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF WHAT I LOVED

''A work of dizzying intensity . . . an intriguing and sure-handed debut '' Don DeLillo

''Brilliant . . . a dark, mesmerising debut'' Independent on Sunday

''Hustvedt has pulled off nothing less than a re-mapping of the modern feminist psyche'' Daily Telegraph

Iris Vegan, a graduate student living alone and impoverished in New York, encounters four strong characters who fascinate and in different ways subordinate her: an inscrutable urban recluse who employs her to record the possessions of a murdered woman; a photographer whose eerie portrait of Iris takes on a life of its own; an old woman in hospital who tries to claim a remnant of the ailing Iris; and a professor she has an affair with. An exploration of female identity in an age when the old definitions - as some man''s daughter/wife/mother - no longer apply, fuelled with eroticism and a sense of menace.

''Attests to Hustvedt''s thoroughly original style and her lucid contemporary voice . . . the announcement of a talented writer''s arrival'' Michiko Kakutani, New York Times


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