Author Sites

  • ClaireMessud.com
  • Photo by Lucian Wood

    Claire Messud

    Claire Messud is the author of six works of fiction. A recipient of Guggenheim and Radcliffe fellowships and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she teaches at Harvard University and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

    Claire Messud

    Claire Messud is the author of six works of fiction. A recipient of Guggenheim and Radcliffe fellowships and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she teaches at Harvard University and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

    Awards

    Shortlisted — Los Angeles Times Book Prize, 2017

    Longlisted — Booker Prize, 2024

    Longlisted — Giller Prize, 2024

    Shortlisted — American Library in Paris Book Award, 2024

    Books by Claire Messud

    • The Burning Girl: A Novel

      Claire Messud

      Hardback, 2017

      A New York Times Bestseller
      A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist

      A bracing, hypnotic coming-of-age story about the bond of best friends, from the New York Times best-selling author of The...
    • The Burning Girl: A Novel

      Claire Messud

      Paperback, 2018

      A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist

      "[A] masterwork of psychological fiction.… Messud teases readers with a psychological mystery, withholding information and then cannily parceling it out." —...
    • Kant's Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write: An Autobiography in Essays

      Claire Messud

      Hardback, 2020

      A glimpse into a beloved novelist’s inner world, shaped by family, art, and literature.
    • The Burning Girl: A Novel

      Claire Messud

      E Book, 2017

      A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist

      "[A] masterwork of psychological fiction.… Messud teases readers with a psychological mystery, withholding information and then cannily parceling it out." —...
    • Kant's Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write: An Autobiography in Essays

      Claire Messud

      E Book, 2020

      A glimpse into a beloved novelist’s inner world, shaped by family, art, and literature.
    • The Last Life

      Claire Messud

      Paperback, 2022

      A “mesmerizing” novel from the acclaimed author of The Emperor’s Children that is “as artful as it is affecting” (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times).
    • The Last Life

      Claire Messud

      E Book, 2022

      A “mesmerizing” novel from the acclaimed author of The Emperor’s Children that is “as artful as it is affecting” (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times).
    • This Strange Eventful History: A Novel

      Claire Messud

      Hardback, 2024

    • This Strange Eventful History: A Novel

      Claire Messud

      E Book

    • Quartet: A Novel

      Jean Rhys, Claire Messud

      Paperback, 2020

      “[Quartet’s] abiding power arises from [Jean Rhys’s] ability to convey the complex vectors of desire and repulsion that move between the characters, distorted by the intractable demands of...