The Shaking Woman, Or, a History of My Nerves

FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF WHAT I LOVED AND A WOMAN LOOKING AT MEN LOOKING AT WOMEN

WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY NOGA ARIKHA

‘Provocative but often funny, encyclopedic but down to earth . . . an extraordinary double story’
Oliver Sacks

‘It is Hustvedt’s gift to write with exemplary clarity of what is by necessity unclear’
Hilary Mantel, Guardian

While speaking at a memorial event for her father, the novelist Siri Hustvedt suffered a violent seizure from the neck down. Was it triggered by nerves, emotion – or something else entirely?

In this profoundly thought-provoking and revealing book, Hustvedt takes the reader on her journey through psychiatry, philosophy, neuroscience and medical history in search of a diagnosis. Conveying the often frightening mysteries of illness, she illuminates the perennially mysterious connection between mind and body and what we mean by ‘I’.

‘Fascinating’
Daily Telegraph

‘Elegant, clear and wide-ranging’
Independent