After their father's funeral, Erik and Inga Davidsen find a cryptic letter from a woman among his papers, dating from his adolescence in rural Minnesota during the Depression. Returning to his psychiatric practice in New York City, Erik sets about reading his father's memoir, hoping to discover the man he never fully knew. At the same time, another woman enters Erik's lonely, divorced life - a beautiful Jamaican who moves into his garden flat with her small daughter. As Erik gets drawn into the cat and mouse tactics of someone who appears to be stalking her, he finds out that his sister Inga is also being threatened, by a journalist in possession of a wounding secret from her past. A multi-layered novel that probes the mysteries of the heart and mind, The Sorrows of an American is breathtaking in its range, richly thought-provoking and profoundly affecting - a novel that resonates long beyond the last page.