Siri Hustvedt's mesmerising second novel, 'startlingly good, tautly written and very sexy' Marie Claire.
Siri Hustvedt's mesmerising second novel, longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction
Lily Dahl is a heroine of the old school: tough, beautiful and brave. A nineteen-year-old waitress and aspiring actress living in Webster, Minnesota, she becomes enchanted by an exotic outsider - an artist from New York. Drawn into a world of erotic adventure, she finds herself the target of mysterious acts of madness as she strains against the confines of small town life.
“Told with the gripping pace of a straightforward mystery tale...A natural born storyteller”
Compelling...Webster's hot-house atmosphere and collection of oddballs and freaks are brilliantly evoked...She orchestrates suspense masterfully and her writing has a quality of stillness, of effortless deliberation, which is peculiarly suited to the sense of foreboding. - Literary Review
Full of humour, surprise and powerful images...Hustvedt's real triumph, though, is to take the ordinary and make it strange while showing how all strangeness is rooted in the ordinary. - Observer - IndependentA taut and convincing drama, as well as an intriguing metaphysical thriller - Sunday TimesSubtle, complex and engaging - Financial TimesHustvedt's powerful theme of small-town mentality shows how intimacy and claustrophobia, secrets and skeletons, come out of the same closet...[an] exploration of the narrow line between imagination and reality while still managing to be a rip-roaring adventure story...beautifully written - ScotsmanA startlingly good novel, tautly written and very sexy. - Marie ClaireSiri Hustvedt's first novel, THE BLINDFOLD, was published by Sceptre in 1993 and her second, THE ENCHANTMENT OF LILY DAHL, followed in 1997. Her third novel, WHAT I LOVED, was published in 2003 to great acclaim and has been an international bestseller. Her most recent novel, THE SORROWS OF AN AMERICAN, was published in 2008. She is also the author of Reading to You, a poetry collection, three collections of essays, Yonder, Mysteries of the Rectangle: Essays on Painting, and A PLEA FOR EROS. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband Paul Auster.
Lily Dahl is a heroine of the old school: tough, beautiful and brave. A nineteen-year-old waitress and aspiring actress living in Webster, Minnesota, she becomes enchanted by an exotic outsider - an artist from New York. Drawn into a world of erotic adventure, she finds herself the target of mysterious acts of madness as she strains against the confines of small town life.
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