Ghost Stories by Siri Hustvedt

I have to be honest, before I read this book I had not heard of American novelist Hustvedt nor her late husband, writer and filmmaker Paul Auster. But now I'm kind of low-key obsessed with them, the way I am with Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne. Siri and Paul were married for 43 years before he died of lung cancer in 2024. While this is a memoir about her grief in losing Paul, it is also a love letter to the many years they spent in love, raising their family. One of the lightest parts of the book is the birth of their grandchild, Miles, before Paul died. At the time of his death, he was working on a manuscript of letters to Miles, which was full of the history of his parents and grandparents. Siri deftly navigates the narrative from her own diary entries, through Auster's writing, and then to letters she wrote to friends of Paul during his illness. There are highs in the book, including the birth of their daughter Sophie, and lows such as the imprisonment and death of Auster's son, Daniel. But as Hustvedt combs over her 43 years with Auster, I came away with such admiration and thought, "This is a marriage well done!" They found each other. They fell in love. They built a family and a life, and two wonderful careers. I think Hustvedt comes to a similar conclusion while walking through the maze of her grief. She misses him in every room, but she still lives within the walls of the house they built together. To buy this book on Amazon click here.