SIRI HUSTVEDT on Love, Grief & Her Late Husband PAUL AUSTER - Highlights

SIRI HUSTVEDT on Love, Grief & Her Late Husband PAUL AUSTER - Highlights

From Books & Writers · The Creative Process: Novelists, Screenwriters, Playwrights, Poets, Non-fiction Writers & Journalists Talk Writing, Life & Creativity by Novelists, Screenwriters, Playwrights, Poets, Non-fiction Writers & Journalists Talk Writing • Creative Process Original Series

February 23, 2026 · 26 min · Season 16 · Episode 1219

About this episode

Siri Hustvedt discusses her new memoir 'Ghost Stories' and explores themes of love and grief following the loss of her husband, Paul Auster.

“Grief is a particular kind of unrequited love. It wasn't unrequited in the past. Usually, we think of unrequited love as you never got to do it, you never had it for yourself. But, in fact, there can be requited love, which is then unrequited love in the paroxysms of grief.” Today, we are honored to welcome a writer whose work has long explored the intimate landscapes of the mind, memory and the heart. Siri Hustvedt ’s writing moves between the personal and the philosophical, the literary and the deeply human. Her work bridges collections of essays, non-fiction, poetry, and seven novels, including the international bestsellers What I Loved and The Summer Without Men . Recipient of the Princess of Asturias Award for Literature and the Gabarron Prize for Thought, her work has been translated into over thirty languages. Her new memoir, Ghost Stories , is a reflection on forty-three years shared with her late husband, the writer and filmmaker Paul Auster . In its pages, we encounter not only love and loss, but the quiet persistence of presence, memory, and language itself. (0:00) “We were hugely important to the drama of becoming in our own lives” (2:04) Grief as Unrequited Love…

People in this episode

Guest: Siri Hustvedt

Topics covered

  • grief
  • love
  • memory
  • marriage
  • memoir

Keywords

  • grief
  • love
  • Siri Hustvedt
  • Paul Auster
  • memoir
  • Ghost Stories
  • memory
  • marriage

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