The Enchantment of Lily Dahl A Novel [Paperback]

The protagonist of Siri Hustvedt's astonishing second novelThe Enchantment of Lily Dahlis a heroine of the old style: tough, beautiful, and brave. Standing at the threshold of adulthood, she enters a new world of erotic adventure, profound but unexpected friendship, and inexplicable, frightening acts of madness. Lily's story is also the story of a small town--Webster, Minnesota--where people are brought together by a powerful sense of place, both geographical and spiritual. Here gossip, secrets, and storytelling are as essential to the bond among its people as the borders that enclose the town.

The real secret at the heart of the book is the one that lies between reality and appearances, between waking life and dreams, at the place where imagination draws on its transforming powers in the face of death.

Siri Hustvedt writes, literally, like a dream--a dream that's at once intensely romantic and disturbingly eerie. This dark, sexy, spooky novel is an indelibly memorable fiction. Read it and it will haunt you. Salman Rushdie

Highly original...a crystalline blend of innocence and sophistication, irony and candor. Newsday

The Enchantment of Lily Dahlhas the power to pull readers firmly into its orbit and to keep them there. The Village Voice

She writes like a dream. GQ

Reading Group Guide Questions
1. Hustvedt makes great use of Shakespeare's play,A Midsummer Night's Dream, referring both to its
lines as well as its themes. How does this play relate to the unfolding story of Lily Dahl? Does it have
a double meaning within the story?
2. Spying and voyeurism both have a presence inThe Enchantment of Lily Dahl.In the beginning of
the novel, Lily spies on Ed from her window. Mabel spies on the dark, shadowy character who lurks
outside the Stuart Hotel, himself spying, and Martin's later voyeurism becomes obsessive. Why are the
variousl�