Long-listed for the prestigious Man Booker Prize, Siri Hustvedt’s The Blazing World has been publicised across the US as her best novel yet. Publisher, Simon & Schuster describes it as “a masterful novel about perception, prejudice, desire, and one woman’s struggle to be seen”.
Certainly it is a provocative story. Artist Harriet Burden, who, after years of having her work ignored, ignites an explosive scandal in New York’s 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.
Le News heaved a sigh of relief with the entry of this fine book into Payot’s best-seller list as it has now been spared the tedious task of reviewing the vapid How to Be Parisian: Wherever You Are by Anne Berest and Audrey Diwan which has thankfully disappeared without trace from the list.