The sudden success of Sigrid Nunez

FOR ALMOST a quarter of a century, Sigrid Nunez maintained the quiet life of a writer’s writer. Critically acclaimed but under-known, she published her first novel in 1995 and then many others; but she supported herself mostly with teaching gigs at colleges in and around New York, where she has lived “like a grad student” in the same downtown Manhattan flat since the 1980s. Then in 2018 her eighth book, “The Friend”, became a surprise bestseller and went on to win the National Book Award for fiction. Many of her other books are now reaching readers around the world.