by Lisa Taddeo
'Cuts to the heart of who we are' Sunday Times
'A book that begs discussion' Vanity Fair
All Lina wanted was to be desired. How did she end up in a marriage with two children and a husband who wouldn't touch her?
All Maggie wanted was to be understood. How did she end up in a relationship with her teacher and then in court, a hated pariah in her small town?
All Sloane wanted was to be admired. How did she end up a sexual object of men, including her husband, who liked to watch her have sex with other men and women?
Three Women is a record of unmet needs, unspoken thoughts, disappointments, hopes and unrelenting obsessions.
Animal, the first novel from Lisa Taddeo, is available to pre-order now.
*The book Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Alexa Chung, Jodie Comer, Reese Witherspoon, Harry Styles, Fearne Cotton, Caitriona Balfe, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sharon Horgan, Zoe Ball, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Davina McCall, Gemma Chan, Christine and the Queens and Gillian Anderson are all reading*
'I will probably re-read it every year of my life' Caitlin Moran
'Will have millions nodding in recognition' The Times
'As gripping as the most gripping thriller' Marian Keyes
'When I picked it up, I felt I'd been waiting half my life to read it' Observer
'The kind of bold, timely, once-in-a-generation book that every house should have a copy of, and probably will before too long' New Statesman
The No. 1 Sunday Times Bestseller
The No. 1 New York Times Bestseller
British Book Awards Non-Fiction Narrative Book of the Year 2020
Foyles Non-Fiction Book of the Year
A Stylist Book of the Decade
The Most-Picked Book of the Year of 2019
'Cuts to the heart of who we are' Sunday Times
'A book that begs discussion' Vanity Fair
All Lina wanted was to be desired. How did she end up in a marriage with two children and a husband who wouldn't touch her?
All Maggie wanted was to be understood. How did she end up in a relationship with her teacher and then in court, a hated pariah in her small town?
All Sloane wanted was to be admired. How did she end up a sexual object of men, including her husband, who liked to watch her have sex with other men and women?
Three Women is a record of unmet needs, unspoken thoughts, disappointments, hopes and unrelenting obsessions.
Animal, the first novel from Lisa Taddeo, is available to pre-order now.
*The book Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Alexa Chung, Jodie Comer, Reese Witherspoon, Harry Styles, Fearne Cotton, Caitriona Balfe, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sharon Horgan, Zoe Ball, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Davina McCall, Gemma Chan, Christine and the Queens and Gillian Anderson are all reading*
'I will probably re-read it every year of my life' Caitlin Moran
'Will have millions nodding in recognition' The Times
'As gripping as the most gripping thriller' Marian Keyes
'When I picked it up, I felt I'd been waiting half my life to read it' Observer
'The kind of bold, timely, once-in-a-generation book that every house should have a copy of, and probably will before too long' New Statesman
The No. 1 Sunday Times Bestseller
The No. 1 New York Times Bestseller
British Book Awards Non-Fiction Narrative Book of the Year 2020
Foyles Non-Fiction Book of the Year
A Stylist Book of the Decade
The Most-Picked Book of the Year of 2019
Reviews-
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April 22, 2019
In her ambitious, if flawed, debut, journalist Taddeo reports on the risks women take to fulfill their sexual desires. The result of eight years and thousands of hours of interviews, the book describes how each of her three subjects is undone by an intimate relationship that eventually damaged her. Maggie, a troubled 23-year-old in Fargo, N.Dak., recalls how her high school English teacher seduced her at 17 after learning she’d slept with a man twice her age. When he’s named statewide teacher of the year five years later, she reports their affair to the police; townspeople quickly label her “a freaky slut.” Indiana wife and mother Lina, married to a man who refuses to kiss her, reconnects on Facebook with high school crush Aidan. Their affair, perfunctory on his end, is played out in parked cars while she becomes “a tangle of need and anxiety.” Forty-something Sloane, “beautiful and skinny,” runs a successful Newport, R.I., restaurant with her chef husband who chooses her sexual partners and watches them have sex. Sloane believes her marriage to be secure yet had to “constantly reassess what kind of woman she was.” Unfortunately, all three feel underdeveloped, with no real insight into them or their lives outside of their sexual histories, and with little connective tissue between their stories. Taddeo’s immersive narrative is intense, but more voyeuristic than thoughtful. - New Statesman The kind of bold, timely, once-in-a-generation book that every house should have a copy of, and probably will before too long
- Sunday Times Three Women is an astonishing act of imaginative empathy and a gift to women around the world who feel like their desires are ignored and their voices aren't heard. This is a book that blazes, glitters and cuts to the heart of who we are. I'm not sure that a book can do much more
- Evening Standard A book with the thrill of the new that you can expect to dominate WhatsApp threads, line tube carriages and pop up in foreign AirBnbs for years to come. Taddeo hasn't just caught a moment, she has spawned a new genre. Three Women reminds us that it is both wonderful and brutal to be in love
- Daily Telegraph I've never read a work of non-fiction that so candidly and completely accesses the inner sanctums of its subjects' private lives. I must confess that I found this book almost impossibly compelling. Three Women is a sort of real-world Mills & Boon novel told with the gravitas and momentum of the grittiest, most gripping true crime story. It's the book no one I know can put down, and the one everyone is talking about
- O, The Oprah Magazine [An] instant feminist classic. In this utterly engrossing, frankly game-changing work of narrative non-fiction, a New York magazine contributor profiles a trio of everyday women, shining a light on their darkest desires and how men (and other women) often thwart those wants
- Time Magazine Three Women is a battle cry. The literary brilliance of the book will knock you back. For anyone who thinks they know what women want, this book is an alarm, and its volume is turned all the way up
- Irish Independent Taddeo has combined...
