Kant'S Little Prussian Head And Other Reasons Why I Write Av Claire Messud

<p><b>''A</b><b>n uplifting work: complex, </b><b>precise and bracing''</b><b>Susie Boyt, <i>Financial Times</i></b><br><br><b>''A profound book about the intrication of literature and life, about the modest, miraculous ways art helps us to live'' Garth Greenwell</b><br><br>In twenty-nine intimate, brilliant and funny essays, Claire Messud reflects on a childhood move from her Connecticut home to Australia; the complex relationship between her modern Canadian mother and a fiercely single French Catholic aunt; and a trip to Beirut, where her <i>pied-noir</i> father had once lived, while he was dying. She meditates on contemporary classics from Kazuo Ishiguro, Teju Cole, Rachel Cusk and Valeria Luiselli; examines three facets of Albert Camus and <i>The Stranger</i>; and tours her favorite paintings at Boston''s Museum of Fine Arts. Crafting a vivid portrait of a life in celebration of the power of literature, Messud proves once again ''an absolute master storyteller'' (Rebecca Carroll, <