A magnificent new biography of Henrik Ibsen, among the greatest modern playwrights "A superb account of the social and political atmosphere of Scandinavia in Ibsen's time, and of Ibsen's peculiar and inconsistent place within it."-Andrew Katzenstein, Harper's "A stellar life of the celebrated father of modern European drama."-Choice Henrik Ibsen (1820-1908) is arguably the most important dramatist of the nineteenth century. Globally he remains the most performed playwright after Shakespeare, and Hedda Gabler, A Doll's House, Peer Gynt, and Ghosts are all masterpieces of psychological insight. This is the first full-scale biography to take a literary as well as historical approach to the works, life, and times of Ibsen. Ivo de Figueiredo shows how, as a man, Ibsen was drawn toward authoritarianism, was absolute in his judgments over others, and resisted the ideas of equality and human rights that formed the bases of the emerging democracies in Europe. And yet as an artist, he advanced debates about the modern individual's freedom and responsibility-and cultivated his own image accordingly. Where other biographies try to show how the artist creates the art, this book reveals how, in Ibsen's case, the art shaped the artist.

"A touching, contemplative chronicle of loss and self-discovery." - Publishers Weekly From the acclaimed biographer of Norway's most treasured cultural icons, Henrik Ibsen and Edvard Munch, comes a story of a migrant family in search of roots and for each other. Ivo de Figueiredo's lyrical and imagistic memoir navigates a difficult search for the origins of his estranged father, which opens a door to a family history spanning four continents, five centuries and the rise and fall of two empires. At the age of 45, Figueiredo traces his father's family in the diaspora. Having emigrated from the Portuguese colony of Goa on the west coast of India to British East Africa, and later to the West, his father's ancestors were Indians with European ways and values-trusted servants of the imperial powers. But in postcolonial times they became homeless, redundant, caught between the age of empires and the age of nations. With lush descriptions and forthcoming honesty, A Stranger at My Table tells the story of a family unwittingly tied to two European empires, who paid the price for their downfall, weathering revolution and many forms of prejudice. The author's trove of often-strange photographs, letters and recordings as well as his eye for the smallest details and double-meanings lead the reader down a mysterious path as his search for his family's heritage results in a surprising reunification with his father and reconciliation with his past. Praise for Henrik Ibsen. The Man and the Mask, 2019 Ivo de Figueiredo's work marks the high point in the long line of biographies of Ibsen that have been published since 1888. - Dagbladet This Ibsen-biography shares the quality of its subject: It is unsurpassable. [...] Anybody with the slightest interest in literature should indulge in a meeting with the most important Norwegian contribution to world literature: The works of Henrik Ibsen. Outside of the plays themselves, there is no better place to start than Ivo de Figueiredo's two books, "The Man" (2006) and "The Mask" (2007). - Klassekampen A jubilant outcry ... it is this literary composition that makes Ivo de Figueiredo revise our understanding of Ibsen. - Dag Solstad Praise for Sleeping Sinner, The Kober Case. A true story of spiritualism, love and a possible murder, 2010 The book is so well written that I almost forgot that it was a book. It resembles a film or a court case. Figueiredo's trick is to focus on the unsolved parts of the case [...] Figueiredo deserves gratitude and admiration. - Aftenposten Wonderfully fascinating reading. Exciting like a crime novel, but from real life. - Varden Electrifyingly well written. The historian and writer, Ivo de Figueiredo, stylistically just gets better and better [...] It is like a thriller you cannot put down. - VG+