Fitzcarraldo Classic No. 10, A STATE OF SIEGE by Janet Frame, with an introduction from Chris Kraus, is available now

By Fitzcarraldo Editions | Posted: Monday Nov 17, 2025

‘She is a singular writer. No one is quite like her.’— Eleanor Catton, author of BIRNAM WOOD

In A STATE OF SIEGE, Janet Frame brings her signature playfulness to paint a thrilling psychological portrait. After the death of her invalid mother, Malfred Signal, a retired New Zealand art teacher, leaves her birthplace in the south for a beach cottage on a sub-tropical island in the north. Freed from endless lessons on still life and the dominating presence of her family, she hopes at last to be alone with nature and the ‘room two inches behind the eyes’. But the solitude she has sought mocks her with echoes of her past, when, one stormy night, an intruder pounds ceaselessly and inexplicably on her door. Propulsive yet poignant, A STATE OF SIEGE is a mesmerizing exploration of the artistic process, of selfhood and loneliness, and of death and its counterpart: the need to survive, to live.

Read an excerpt and order your copy: A State of Siege by Janet Frame | Fitzcarraldo Editions