What I Loved
By Siri Hustvedt
Henry Holt & Co., 2003

(From the publisher) What I Loved begins in New York in 1975, when art historian Leo Hertzberg discovers an extraordinary painting by an unknown artist in a SoHo gallery. He buys the work; tracks down the artist, Bill Wechsler; and the two men embark on a life-long friendship.

Leo's story, which spans twenty-five years, follows the evolution of the growing involvement between his family and Bill's-an intricate constellation of attachments that includes the two men; their wives, Erica and Violet; and their children, Matthew and Mark. The families live in the same building in New York, share a house in Vermont during the summer, keep up a lively exchange of thoughts and ideas, and find themselves permanently altered by one another. Over the years, they not only enjoy love but endure loss-in one case sudden, incapacitating loss; in another, a different kind, one that is hidden and slow-growing, and which insidiously erodes the fabric of their lives.

Intimate in tone and seductive in its complexity, the novel moves seamlessly from inner worlds to outer worlds, from the deeply private to the public, from physical infirmity to cultural illness. Part family novel, part psychological thriller, What I Loved is a beautifully written exploration of love, loss, and betrayal-and of a man's attempt to make sense of the world and go on living.

About the author

	© Sigrid Estrada

(From the publisher) Siri Hustvedt was born in 1955 and grew up in Northfield, Minnesota. Her father was a professor of Scandinavian literature and her mother emigrated from Norway at the age of 30. Hustvedt is the author of two previous novels, The Blindfold and The Enchantment of Lily Dahl. Hustvedt's success has put her in the company of such writers as Marguerite Duras and Jean Rhys, both known for tracking the feminine experience in the twentieth century. Hustvedt lives with her daughter and husband, novelist Paul Auster, in a row house in Brooklyn.