Kant's Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write: An Autobiography Through Essays

Praise for Claire Messud and Kant's Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write

'All writing is autobiographical, but almost never in the ways we presume. This is a profound book about the intrication of literature and life, about the modest, miraculous ways art helps us to live. Claire Messud, with her lapidary intelligence and dizzying sense of history, is among the most luminous writers at work today' Garth Greenwell, author of Cleanness and What Belongs to You

'If Claire Messud's mind was a night sky, these essays chart the stars and constellations visible there. This collection feels like a critic's notebook that has grown into a path through her writing and her reading - illuminating, scintillating, always wise' Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical novel

'Messud here offers us a marvelous memoir of the mind, at once intimate and outward-looking, companionable and brilliant' Rivka Galchen, author of Little Labours

'I can think of few writers capable of such thrilling seriousness expressed with so lavish a gift' Rachel Cusk, Evening Standard

'Messud is an expert storyteller. Her style is precise and illuminating, transforming the mundane into the unusual' Tilly Ware, Guardian

'These moving, contemplative and probing essays reveal Messud's rich inner life and generosity of spirit' Publishers Weekly, starred review

'Powerful and inspirational: Messud is as fine a critic as she is a novelist' Kirkus Reviews, starred review