What I Loved

This is the story of two men who first become friends in 1970s New York, of the women in their lives, and of their sons, born the same year. Both Leo Hertzberg, an art historian, and Bill Weschler, a painter, are cultured, decent men, but neither is equipped to deal with what happens to their children Leo s son drowns when he s 12, while Bill s son Mark grows up to be a delinquent, and the acolyte of a sinister, guru-like artist who spawns murder in his wake. Spanning the hedonism of the eighties and the chill-out nineties, this multi-layered novel combines a plot of mounting menace with a deeply moving account of familial relationships and a superbly observed portrait of an artist, set against the backdrop of a society reaching new depths of depravity in its frenetic quest for the next fashion, drug and thrill.

“Breathtaking - James Urquhart, IndependentA love story with the grip and suspense of a thriller. It makes you ponder human existence with a peculiar mixture of stoicism and wonder. - Noonie Minogue, Times Literary SupplementDefiantly complex and frequently dazzling ... she has created a conceptually exciting work that demands we think, but which still allows us room to feel. - Alex Clark, Sunday TimesSubstantial, moving and beautifully written - Christian House, Independent on SundayA big, wide, sensuous novel - clever, sinister, yet attractively real - Julie Myerson, GuardianA consummately intelligent novel, highly literate but also intensely moving. - Jackie McGlone, ScotsmanRiveting ... erudite and immensely detailed ... a rich, densely textured and utterly absorbing novel - Lesley GlaisterSubtle, compassionate, wise, and supremely intelligent, it's a striking achievement. - Kieron Corless, Time Out”

Breathtaking - James Urquhart, Independent

A love story with the grip and suspense of a thriller. It makes you ponder human existence with a peculiar mixture of stoicism and wonder. - Noonie Minogue, Times Literary Supplement

Defiantly complex and frequently dazzling ... she has created a conceptually exciting work that demands we think, but which still allows us room to feel. - Alex Clark, Sunday Times

Substantial, moving and beautifully written - Christian House, Independent on Sunday

A big, wide, sensuous novel - clever, sinister, yet attractively real - Julie Myerson, Guardian

A consummately intelligent novel, highly literate but also intensely moving. - Jackie McGlone, Scotsman

Riveting ... erudite and immensely detailed ... a rich, densely textured and utterly absorbing novel - Lesley Glaister

Subtle, compassionate, wise, and supremely intelligent, it's a striking achievement. - Kieron Corless, Time Out

Siri Hustvedt's first novel, The Blindfold, was published by Sceptre in 1993. Since then she has published The Enchantment of Lily Dahl, What I Loved, The Sorrows of an American and The Summer Without Men. She is also the author of the poetry collection Reading To You, and four collections of essays, Yonder, Mysteries of the Rectangle: Essays on Painting, A Plea for Eros and Living, Thinking, Looking, as well as the memoir The Shaking Woman: A History of My Nerves.

Born in Minnesota, Siri Hustvedt now lives in Brooklyn, New York. She has a PhD in English from Columbia University and in 2012 was awarded the International Gabarron Prize for Thought and Humanities.

This is the story of two men who first become friends in 1970s New York, of the women in their lives, and of their sons, born the same year. Both Leo Hertzberg, an art historian, and Bill Weschler, a painter, are cultured, decent men, but neither is equipped to deal with what happens to their children Leo s son drowns when he s 12, while Bill s son Mark grows up to be a delinquent, and the acolyte of a sinister, guru-like artist who spawns murder in his wake. Spanning the hedonism of the eighties and the chill-out nineties, this multi-layered novel combines a plot of mounting menace with a deeply moving account of familial relationships and a superbly observed portrait of an artist, set against the backdrop of a society reaching new depths of depravity in its frenetic quest for the next fashion, drug and thrill.

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