Ghost Stories

Written in the wake of her husband Paul Auster’s death, Siri Hustvedt’s Ghost Stories is a deeply personal exploration of love, loss, and the lingering presence of memory.

This moving memoir reflects on the couple's forty-three years together while confronting a cascade of recent family tragedies, including the devastating losses of Hustvedt’s stepson and granddaughter. Blending intimate narrative with philosophical reflection, the book incorporates previously unpublished writings from Auster himself, including private notes and his final unfinished manuscript addressed to his grandson. Hustvedt examines how grief alters our experience of time, how physical space carries the weight of absence, and how love persists long after a partner is gone. Both an elegy and a meditation on mourning, Ghost Stories offers a tender, unflinching look at learning to navigate a world transformed by loss.