The Sorrows of an American begins with Erik Davidsen and his sister, Inga, cleaning out their father's effects in Minnesota after his death. Among his papers they find a partially-written memoir and a mysterious letter hinting at secrets in their father's past. Erik and Inga return to New York and they work to understand the mystery of their father's past. Erik is a newly-divorced psychoanalyst who struggles with his own loneliness and depression. He finds himself becoming increasingly obsessed with one of his tenants, a woman named Miranda who has a sinister boyfriend. Inga and her daughter battle grief over her husband's death and the trauma of witnessing the 9/11 attacks. She's hounded by a reporter who claims to have secrets about her husband's past. Both Erik and Inga endeavor to redefine themselves when they discover those who've they loved weren't quite the people they thought they were. This novel by Siri Hustvedt (
What I Loved) has received mostly positive reviews with the Washington Post saying, "Despite everything about
The Sorrows of an American that makes it sound repellent, this is one of the most profound and absorbing books I've read in a long time."
