Blazing World

Named one of the New York Times Book Reviews 100 Notable Books of the Year ** Publishers Weeklys Best Fiction Books of 2014 ** NPR Best Books of 2014 ** Kirkus Reviews Best Literary Fiction Books of 2014 ** Washington Post Top 50 Fiction Books of 2014 ** Boston Globes Best Fiction of 2014 ** The Telegraphs Best Fiction to Read 2014 ** St. Louis Post Dispatchs Best Books of 2014 ** The Independent Fiction Books of the Year 2014 ** One of Buzzfeeds Best Books Written by Women in 2014 ** San Francisco Chronicles Best of 2014 ** A Nancy Pearl Pick ** PopMatters.coms Best of 2014 Fiction Winner of the 2014 LA Times Book Prize for Fiction Finalist for the 2014 Kirkus Prize Hailed by The Washington Post as Siri Hustvedts best novel yet, an electrifying work, The Blazing World is a masterful novel about perception, prejudice, desire, and one womans struggle to be seen.In a new novel called searingly fresh... A Nabokovian cats cradle on the cover of The New York Times Book Review, the internationally bestselling author tells the provocative story of artist Harriet Burden, who, after years of having her work ignored, ignites an explosive scandal in New Yorks art world when she recruits three young men to present her creations as their own. Yet when the shows succeed and Burden steps forward for her triumphant reveal, she is betrayed by the third man, Rune. Many critics side with him, and Burden and Rune find themselves in a charged and dangerous game, one that ends in his bizarre death. An intricately conceived, diabolical puzzle presented as a collection of texts, including Harriets journals, assembled after her death, this glorious mashup of storytelling and scholarship (San Francisco Chronicle) unfolds from multiple perspectives as Harriets critics, fans, family, and others offer their own conflicting opinions of where the truth lies. Writing in Slate, Katie Roiphe declared it a spectacularly good read...feminism in the tradition of Simone de Beauvoirs The Second Sex or Virginia Woolfs A Room of Ones Own: richly complex, densely psychological, dazzlingly nuanced. Astonishing, harrowing, and utterly, completely engrossing (NPR), Hustvedts new novel is Blazing indeed:...with agonizing compassion for all of wounded humanity(Kirkus Reviews, starred review). It is a masterpiece that will be remembered for years to come.