FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF WHAT I LOVED

'An astoundingly joyful read . . . a book that shines with intellectual curiosity and emotional integrity' Guardian

**'**By turns funny, moving and erudite, playfully reminding us of a contemporary Jane Austen' Daily Mail

After Mia Fredricksen's husband of thirty years asks for a pause - so he can indulge his infatuation with a young French colleague - she cracks up (briefly), rages (deeply), then decamps to her prairie childhood home.

There, gradually, she is drawn into the lives of those around her: her mother's circle of feisty widows; the young woman next door; and the diabolical teenage girls in her poetry class. By the end of the summer without men, Mia knows what's worth fighting for - and on whose terms.

Provocative, mordant, and fiercely intelligent, this is a gloriously vivacious tragi-comedy about women and girls, love and marriage, and the age-old war between the sexes.

A rich and intelligent meditation on female identity, written in beguiling lyrical prose . . . heady and intoxicating' Sunday 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