The Summer Without Men

An exhilarating tragicomedy about the war of the sexes and what makes women tick by the internationally bestselling author Siri Hustvedt.

'Some time after he said the word pause, I went mad and landed in the hospital. He did not say I don't ever want to see you again or It's over, but after thirty years of marriage pause was enough to turn me into a lunatic.'

When Mia Fredrickson 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: her mother and her close friends who face their twilight years with zest and in one case, playful subversion; her young neighbour with two small children and a loud angry husband; and the adolescent girls in her poetry workshop whose scheming and petty cruelty carry a threat all their own. Over the course of the summer, Mia gains a whole new perspective on her life.

By the internationally bestselling author of WHAT I LOVED, this a wonderfully witty, spirited and provocative novel about women and girls, love and marriage, and the so-called war of the sexes.

Siri Hustvedt is the author of four novels, THE BLINDFOLD, THE ENCHANTMENT OF LILY DAHL, WHAT I LOVED and THE SORROWS OF AN AMERICAN, as well as a poetry collection and three collections of essays. Her most recent book, THE SHAKING WOMAN or A HISTORY OF MY NERVES, was published in March 2010. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Paul Auster.