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LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION

‘Defiantly complex and frequently dazzling’ Sunday Times

‘Siri Hustvedt’s most ambitious, most rewarding novel. It mesmerises, arouses, disturbs’ Salman Rushdie

‘Superb . . . What I Loved is a rare thing, a page turner written at full intellectual stretch, serious but witty, large-minded and morally engaged’ New York Times Book Review

‘A love story with the grip and suspense of a thriller’ Times Literary Supplement

In 1975 art historian Leo Hertzberg discovers an extraordinary painting by an unknown artist in a New York gallery. He buys the work, tracks down its creator, Bill Wechsler, and the two men embark on a life-long friendship.

This is the story of their intense and troubled relationship, of the women in their lives and their work, of art and hysteria, love and seduction and their sons – born the same year but whose lives take very different paths.

‘A big, wide, sensuous novel – clever, sinister, yet attractively real’ Guardian

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

‘A 21st-century Virginia Woolf’ Literary Review

Publisher Review

a powerful novel of love, loss and longing, exquisitely written * Anne Donovan, Sunday Herald * Hustvedt ranks amongst the finest American writers working today * Jennifer O'Connell, Sunday Business Post * Subtle, compassionate, wise, and supremely intelligent, it's a striking achievement. * Kieron Corless, Time Out * Riveting ... erudite and immensely detailed ... a rich, densely textured and utterly absorbing novel * Lesley Glaister * A consummately intelligent novel, highly literate but also intensely moving. * Jackie McGlone, Scotsman * A big, wide, sensuous novel - clever, sinister, yet attractively real * Julie Myerson, Guardian * Substantial, moving and beautifully written * Christian House, Independent on Sunday * 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 * 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 * Breathtaking * James Urquhart, Independent *