From the internationally bestselling author of What I Loved and The Summer Without Men, a dazzling collection of essays written with Siri Hustvedt's customary intelligence, wit and ability to convey complex ideas in a clear and lively way. Divided into three sections - Living, which draws on Siri's own life; Thinking, on memory, emotion and the imagination; and Looking, on art and artists - the essays range across the humanities and science as Siri explores how we see, remember, feel and interact with others, what it means to sleep, dream and speak, and what we mean by 'self'. The combination offers a profound and fascinating insight into ourselves as thinking, feeling beings.

PRAISE FOR THE SHAKING WOMAN: 'Provocative but often funny, encyclopedic but down to earth...Hustvedt's erudite book deepens one's wonder about the relation of body and mind.' Oliver Sacks

Siri Hustvedt's first novel, THE BLINDFOLD, was published by Sceptre in 1993 and her second, THE ENCHANTMENT OF LILY DAHL, followed in 1997. Both were highly acclaimed and translated around the world, while part of THE BLINDFOLD was made into a film (Of Women and Magic, directed by Claude Miller). Her third novel, WHAT I LOVED, was published in 2003 to even greater acclaim and has been an international success; her next novel, THE SORROWS OF AN AMERICAN, followed in 2008. Her work has been published in The Paris Review, Fiction, and The Best American Short Stories, and she is also the author of READING TO YOU, a poetry collection, and three collections of essays, YONDER, MYSTERIES OF THE RECTANGLE: Essays on Painting, and A PLEA FOR EROS, and a non-fiction work, THE SHAKING WOMAN: A HISTORY OF MY NERVES. Her most recent novel is THE SUMMER WITHOUT MEN. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, Paul Auster.

Siri Hustvedt: Siri Hustvedt wurde am 19.02.1955 in Northfield, Minnesota, als älteste von vier Töchtern eines norwegisch-amerikanischen Professors für Skandinavistik und einer norwegischen Einwanderin geboren. Nach dem Besuch des St. Olaf College in Northfield, das sie 1977 mit B.A. in Geschichte abschloss, arbeitete sie zunächst als Kellnerin. 1978 ging sie zum Studium nach New York. 1979 erwarb sie an der Columbia University den M.A. in Anglistik. 1986 wurde sie mit einer Arbeit über Charles Dickens ("Figures of Dust. A Reading of 'Our mutual friend'") zum PhD promoviert. Im Februar 1981 lernte sie den Schriftsteller Paul Auster kennen, den sie 1983 heiratete und mit dem sie einen Stiefsohn und eine Tochter hat. Heute arbeitet Siri Hustvedt als Schriftstellerin, Essayistin und Übersetzerin aus dem Norwegischen.