In this chapter I discuss Siri Hustvedt’s post-9/11 novel The Sorrows of an American and its construction of individual and collective trauma and isolation. I first analyse the novel’s main families, which are all characterised by the absence of fathers, before I delve into the narrative’s therapeutic dimension. The novel’s protagonist Erik Davidsen is a psychotherapist who suffers from a personal and professional crisis and is forced to revise his own self-image as kind and effective Samaritan. I show how he and some of the other main characters are given the opportunity to overcome their isolation through a gift-giving ritual towards the end of the novel.