The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt, Sceptre, $25
When Mia’s husband of 30 years calls for a pause in their marriage (“the Pause was French with limp but shiny brown hair. She had significant breasts”) she goes mad briefly, is hospitalised, and emerges from hospital shaken but sane into a world entirely made up of women.
They span the generations, from her mother and the four formidable widows with whom she lives in assisted care, to the seven pubescent girls who join her poetry class and the young mum struggling with two kids next door.
Mia becomes friend and confidante to them all – while brooding a little on her husband and a lot on the essential differences between men and women. It’s nowhere near as meaty as Hustvedt’s best-selling What I Loved but it’s funny, literary and fiercely smart.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
