Siri Hustvedt is a novelist of great intelligence. She knows the ways of the world and of the heart ... THE SUMMER WITHOUT MEN is a new departure. Despite its painful subject matter - marital rupture, encroaching death, the tormenting antics of malice-ridden girls - the novel is a mordant comedy. Lisa Appignanesi, The Observer a rich and intelligent meditation on female identity, written in beguiling lyrical prose ... heady and intoxicating Lucy Scholes, Sunday Times Hustvedt is a writer of luminous perception Jane Shilling, Telegraph Hustvedt's intensely visual writing spans the generations. She can conjure up a child's realm of imaginary friends as evocatively as the brave face adopted by the elderly living in "a world of continual loss". The story of one woman regaining her own identity, it's by turns funny, moving and erudite, playfully reminding us of a contemporary Jane Austen. Claire Colvin, Daily Mail [Mia] is alarmingly funny and her narrative toys with the immediacy of the epistolary novel ... Events are coupled with commentary, commentary leads into event and temporal sequence is delightfully confused. Such digressive freedom is one of the pleasures of THE SUMMER WITHOUT MEN, in which fiction, fantasy, and historical fact are interweaved. Stephanie Bishop, TLS THE SUMMER WITHOUT MEN shows a mind alive, at work and boundlessly curious about the way people live and love. It is the kind of book with which to grapple and argue, to challenge and fight, but also with which to engage and at which to marvel. Jennifer Levasseuer, The Age Siri Hustvedt is an intelligent, intuitive, talented writer Lionel Shriver, Financial Times It's a warm, affecting tale about love, loss and finding consolation in female friendship. Hustvedt captures both the absurdity and the tragedy of life Sebastian Shakespeare, Tatler 'Mia's voice is witty, concise, demanding; delighted by the concordances of sounds in words, compassionate and aware of its own faults. Hustvedt shows us Mia as she stumbles through the female relationships around her, all painted in with a wry eye. Philip Womack, Telegraph Hustvedt makes it all seem effortless... it's an astoundingly joyful read, an apparently artless jumble of scenes, memories, letters and emails, scraps of poetry, rhetorical riffs. Mia rages and repents, but she never loses her mordant sense of humour... the book shines with intellectual curiosity and emotional integrity. Dignified yet playful, cutting yet tender, every page reminds us that, as Mia's doctor tells her, "tolerating cracks is part of being alive". Justine Jordan, Guardian An exquisite, thought-provoking novel. Fanny Blake, Woman & Home The emotion in The Summer Without Men is stunningly authentic...So pitch-perfect are the responses and the retellings of her protagonist that one could almost be forgiven for assuming she must be writing from experience. To do so, however, is to underestimate the fearsome talent of this stellar writer. West Australian This is a rich and intelligent meditation on female identity, written in beguiling, lyrical prose. Sunday Times
