The Blindfold

(Paperback, 2nd edition)

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Description

Iris Vegan, a graduate student living alone and impoverished in New York, encounters four strong characters who fascinate and in different ways subordinate her: an inscrutable urban recluse who employs her to record the possessions of a murdered woman; a photographer whose eerie portrait of Iris takes on a life of its own; an old woman in hospital who tries to claim a remnant of the ailing Iris; and a professor she has an affair with. An exploration of female identity in an age when the old definitions as some man s daughter/wife/mother no longer apply, fuelled with eroticism and a sense of menace.

Reviews

'A complex exploration of the nature of the self, executed in polished and immediate prose' -- The Times 'It has vivid and compelling characters; it is scary, sinister and readable ... a very smart novel' -- Independent 'A work of dizzying intensity ... an intriguing and sure-handed debut by a writer of eloquent and vivid disposition' -- Don DeLillo 'A dark mesmerising debut' -- Independent on Sunday 'A harsh, dark, dangerous piece of prose ... the whole resonates with shocking force' -- Vogue 'Her descriptions of the city and its manners are as amusing and polished as those of a practised essayist' -- Observer

Author Bio

Siri Hustvedt's first novel, The Blindfold, was published by Sceptre in 1993 and has since been translated into eight foreign languages. She is the author of a book of poetry, Reading To You, and her work has been published in The Paris Review, Fiction, and The Best American Short Stories. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.