Sight: A Novel

by Jessie Greengrass Narrated by Lucy Paterson

Overview

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2018

'A dazzling obsessive entry in a burgeoning genre. Unusual and absorbing... the novel as a whole exudes a strange consoling power.'*-*The New Yorker

'Sight*delves into a lot in under 200 pages: mothers and daughters, birth and death, loss and grief, finding one's balance, the ardor and arduousness of scientific discovery.*Readers willing to give themselves over to Greengrass' penetrating vision will surely expand theirs.'*-*NPR

'With*visceral,*elegantly wrought truths of life and loss, this is*an exciting companion to Sheila Heti's recent Motherhood*(2018).'*-*Booklist


In Jessie Greengrass' dazzlingly brilliant debut novel, our unnamed narrator recounts her progress to motherhood, while remembering the death of her own mother ten years before, and the childhood summers she spent with her psychoanalyst grandmother.

Woven among these personal recollections are significant events in medical history: Wilhelm Rontgen's discovery of the X-ray; Sigmund Freud's development of psychoanalysis and the work that he did with his daughter, Anna; and the origins of modern surgery and the anatomy of pregnant bodies.

Sight is a novel about being a parent and a child: what it is like to bring a person in to the world, and what it is to let one go. Exquisitely written and fiercely intelligent, it is an incisive exploration of how we see others, and how we might know ourselves.

Editorial Reviews

FEBRUARY 2019 - AudioFile

Lucy Paterson narrates this novel as if she wrote it herself. The searching, slightly hesitant quality in her voice perfectly matches the unnamed protagonist's struggle to reconcile her desire for children with her fears that the early death of her mother and her troubled relationships with other relatives may impede her caregiving ability. To settle her apprehensions, she researches scientists who strove for transparency in their work, including Röntgen's discovery of the X-ray and Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theories. This audiobook is a recent entry in the subgenre of autofiction (fictionalized autobiography) on the ambiguities of motherhood. While its meditative tone is not for everyone, the honest reflections of the protagonist coupled with her sharp observations make for a compelling listen. M.J. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

*PICKED AS ONE OF THE 'EMERGING AUTHORS TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2018* BY THE INDEPENDENT (UK), IRISH TIMES and BOOK RIOT

‘One of the finest contemporary English novels I've read. Elegant and intelligent, troubling and serious… exquisitely well-assembled. Every page has a line of pure underline-for-later brilliance.’ – Max Porter, author of Grief Is the Thing with Feathers

'Great things are predicted for Jessie Greengrass’s Sight.' – Irish Times, 'Books to look out for in 2018' 

'A stimulating read about motherhood and the disconnect within ourselves... a spectacularly written novel.' – BookRiot 

‘Written in gorgeous, crystalline prose, Sight is a moving exploration of perception and wonder.’ – Dazed

‘Beautiful to read… wise and insightful… completely compelling.’ – Monocle

FEBRUARY 2019 - AudioFile

Lucy Paterson narrates this novel as if she wrote it herself. The searching, slightly hesitant quality in her voice perfectly matches the unnamed protagonist's struggle to reconcile her desire for children with her fears that the early death of her mother and her troubled relationships with other relatives may impede her caregiving ability. To settle her apprehensions, she researches scientists who strove for transparency in their work, including Röntgen's discovery of the X-ray and Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theories. This audiobook is a recent entry in the subgenre of autofiction (fictionalized autobiography) on the ambiguities of motherhood. While its meditative tone is not for everyone, the honest reflections of the protagonist coupled with her sharp observations make for a compelling listen. M.J. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169442472
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	08/21/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

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