The Summer Without Men

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

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] 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