Possessions: A Novel

This sequel to Kristeva's celebrated allegory The Old Man and the Wolves returns to the corrupt, seaside resort of a mythical town, where the boundaries between East and West, civilization and barbarism, and good and evil are erased.

Library Journal

In Santa Varvara, the corrupt eastern European locale of Kristeva's earlier The Old Man and the Wolves (LJ 12/94), Gloria Harrison, a gifted translator as well as devoted mother and sexually passionate woman, is murdered and decapitated after giving a dinner party. Her friend, reporter and amateur detective Stephanie Delacour, observes as Detective Rilsky interviews the dinner guests to uncover the murderer but is nagged by a sense of something omitted and undertakes her own investigation. This is a gripping mystery as well as a philosophical novel, full of sensuality; psychological insights (Kristeva is a psychoanalyst), especially relating to the mother/child relationship; and rich musical and artistic imagery. Bray's translation from the French is competent. Highly recommended for most public and academic libraries.Ann Irvine, Montgomery Cty. P.L., Silver Spring, Md.

Julia Kristeva, internationally known psychoanalyst and critic, is Professor of Linguistics at the University de Paris VII. She has hosted a French television series and is the author of many critically acclaimed books published by Columbia University Press in translation, including Time and Sense: Proust and the Experience of Literature and New Maladies of the Soul.