A provocative, wildly funny, intellectually rigorous and engrossing novel, punctuated by Siri Hustvedt's own illustrations - a tour de force by one of America's most acclaimed and beloved writers.
By the bestselling author of WHAT I LOVED, an intimate and enlightening account of her search for the key to her mysterious nervous disorder, which brilliantly illuminates the connection between mind and body.
'A startling novel of ferocious psychological acumen, which, to my mind, deserves a large, international readership... very much a book for our times' Siri Hustvedt, from the introduction
'A literary giant in Sweden, Dagerman conjures a Strindbergian atmosphere of shadowy menace in his brief, intense novel, A Moth to a Flame... This moody, death-haunted novel is well worth reading' Evening Standard
In 1940s Stockholm, a young man named Bengt falls into deep, private turmoil with the unexpected death of his mother. As he struggles to cope with her loss, his despair slowly transforms to rage when he discovers that his father had a mistress. Bengt swears revenge on behalf of his mother's memory, but he soon finds himself drawn into a fevered and forbidden affair with the very woman he set out to destroy . . .
Written in a taut, restrained style, A Moth to a Flame is an intense exploration of heartache and fury, desperation and illicit passion. Set against a backdrop of the moody streets of Stockholm and the Hitchcockian shadows in the woods and waters of Sweden's remote islands, this is a psychological masterpiece by one of Sweden's greatest writers.
'Dagerman wrote with beautiful objectivity. Instead of emotive phrases, he uses a choice of facts, like bricks, to construct an emotion' Graham Greene
'Dagerman can evoke such emotion in a single sentence' Colm Tóibín
'There are some writers (Kafka and Lorca immediately spring to mind) who come to enjoy the status of saint; their lives and deaths constitute statements about existence and its proper priorities. A saint of this type is the Swedish writer Stig Dagerman' Times Literary Supplement
'This searing tale of bereavement and loathing feels all too relevant today' Guardian
“Walking between these figures feels like an interruption; being a spectator is itself a performance. They seem to know more than we do, about the status of being an artwork and the place of the viewer. The joke, if there is one, is on us.” — The Guardian
Muñoz's revolutionary oeuvre creates emotional and evocative narratives through sculpture, installation, drawing, writing, and sound. Situating viewers between his work and amongst each other, he creates an intimacy between works of art and viewers. Muñoz thought deeply about art history and in particular the tradition of Spanish painting. Before his untimely death at the age of forty-eight, he produced an extensive, powerfully evocative body of work that uniquely explores the narrative and philosophical possibilities of art.
Published on the occasion of the two-floor exhibition at David Zwirner in New York in 2022, this catalogue provides an expansive overview of Muñoz’s career from the 1980s onwards. In an accompanying text, art historian and curator Guillaume Kientz contextualizes Muñoz’s influences within the art-historical canon. Acclaimed writer Siri Hustvedt writes a thoughtful response to the artist’s iconic Conversation Piece. In an imagined interview between Muñoz and himself, Maurizio Cattelan further propels the artist’s artistic momentum and potential in the time before his death. Also featured is a never-before-published interview between Muñoz and the art historian Michael Brenson that took place in 2000, less than one year prior to his untimely death.
On one of Spencer Ostrander’s early visits to Times Square, the rain began to fall. The people in the crowd, suddenly draped in plastic, were transformed into abstract, brilliant reflections of the massive advertising that surrounded them. Designed to entrap the consumer with illusions of status, the good life, and happiness by product, the vast LED light boards turned visitors into walking ads for MTV, Coca-Cola, and The Lion King. And when the flickering LEDs hit his camera’s sensor, they created streaks of color and lines that don’t exist, but are part of the photos, a technical mirage that perfectly suits Ostrander’s subject—the empty allure of late capitalism. Moving among the people with his camera, Ostrander began to see sorrow, tenderness, despair—a hidden story that starts to reveal itself in his photographs.
Feminist philosophy meets family memoir in a fresh essay collection by the award-winning essayist and novelist Siri Hustvedt, author of the bestselling What I Loved and Booker Prize-longlisted The Blazing World.
Feminist philosophy meets family memoir in a fresh essay collection by the award-winning essayist and novelist Siri Hustvedt, author of the bestselling What I Loved and Booker Prize-longlisted The Blazing World.
Sigmund Freud himself was certainly aware of the significance of psychoanalysis when he founded it: he saw it on the same level as the Copernican revolution and Darwin’s theory of evolution. The theory of the subconscious, which today has the status of an anthropological paradigm, originated at Berggasse 19 in Vienna. Today, in the building where Freud lived and had his practice, there is a museum dedicated to him. This catalogue, devoted to the fascinating, pioneering history of psychoanalysis and its impact, is appearing in conjunction with the museum’s renovation. The book sheds light on Freud’s life and work and is amply supplemented with a presentation of the museum’s art collection. The insightful essays on psychoanalysis, along with the Freud Museum’s art collection (initiated by Joseph Kosuth) activate Freud’s legacy, allowing the imaginary and the imagination to meet in unique ways. An introduction by the multi-award-winning author Siri Hustvedt begins the book.
Sigmund Freud himself was certainly aware of the significance of psychoanalysis when he founded it: he saw it on the same level as the Copernican revolution and Darwin’s theory of evolution. The theory of the subconscious, which today has the status of an anthropological paradigm, originated at Berggasse 19 in Vienna. Today, in the building where Freud lived and had his practice, there is a museum dedicated to him. This catalogue, devoted to the fascinating, pioneering history of psychoanalysis and its impact, is appearing in conjunction with the museum’s renovation. The book sheds light on Freud’s life and work and is amply supplemented with a presentation of the museum’s art collection. The insightful essays on psychoanalysis, along with the Freud Museum’s art collection (initiated by Joseph Kosuth) activate Freud’s legacy, allowing the imaginary and the imagination to meet in unique ways. An introduction by the multi-award-winning author Siri Hustvedt begins the book.
A dazzling collection of essays by the bestselling author of What I Loved - thought-provoking, engaging, illuminating reflections on what it means to be human
