A collection of essays, which addresses many of the themes explored in the author's novels - identity, sexual attraction, relationships, family, mental illness, the power of the imagination, a sense of belonging and mortality. In three cases, it focuses on the novels of other writers - Dickens, James and Fitzgerald.

By the best-selling author of 'What I loved', this is an account of Siri Hustvedt's search for the key to her mysterious nervous disorder and a fascinating exploration of the mind and its connection with the body.

When Mia Fredricksen learns that her husband is having an affair, she suffers a brief breakdown then retreats to her childhood town and her mother's embrace. Alone in a rented house, she rages and fumes and bemoans her sorry fate. Slowly, however, she is drawn into the lives of those around her.

Siri Hustvedt's novels are known for being as thought-provoking as they are emotionally involving. In these essays, Hustvedt shows what lies behind her fiction - an abiding curiosity about who we are and how we got that way, which has led her into the realms of psychology and neuroscience, as well as philosophy, art and literature.

Artist Harriet Burden, consumed by fury at the lack of recognition she has received from the New York art establishment, embarks on an experiment: she hides her identity behind three male fronts who exhibit her work as their own. And yet, even after she has unmasked herself, there are those who refuse to believe she is the woman behind the men.