Lisa Taddeo is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Three Women, which she is adapting as a dramatic series at Showtime, and the novel Animal. She has contributed to The New York Times, New York magazine, Esquire, Elle, Glamour, and many other publications. Her nonfiction has been included in the Best American Sports Writing and Best American Political Writing anthologies, and her short stories have won two Pushcart Prizes. She lives with her husband and daughter in New England.
"I can't remember the last time a book affected me as profoundly as
Three Women. Lisa Taddeo is a tireless reporter, a brilliant
writer, and a storyteller possessed of almost supernatural
humanity. As far as I'm concerned, this is a nonfiction literary
masterpiece at the same level as In Cold Blood--and just as
suspenseful, bone-chilling, and harrowing, in its own way. I know
already that I will never stop thinking about the women profiled in
this story--about their sexual desire, their emotional pain, their
strength, their losses. I saw myself in all of them. Truly, Three
Women is an extraordinary offering."
--Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love and City of Girls
"Three Women is a masterpiece. . . . Taddeo spent eight years
immersed in the romantic, sexual, and emotional lives of three
women. . . . No doubt, you'll find parts of yourself in these
women."
--Caitlin Brody, Vanity Fair "An astonishing work of literary
reportage . . . As Lisa Taddeo writes about her subjects, the women
she uses to map out an anthropological, humane, passionate study of
female desire, she seems almost to inhabit them. . . . A
fascinating appraisal of a subject few writers have approached so
intently."
--Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic "The hottest book of the summer . .
. Taddeo spent eight years reporting this groundbreaking book,
moving across the country and back again in her staggeringly
intimate foray into the sexual lives and desires of three
'ordinary' women. Tragedy and despair lurk in each of their
stories, but Taddeo's dynamic writing brings them all to
breathtaking life."
--Entertainment Weekly "Taddeo spent a decade immersed in the sex
lives of three ordinary American woman. . . . The result is the
most in-depth look at the female sex drive and all its accompanying
social, emotional, reproductive, and anthropological implications
that's been published in decades. But it's also fully immersive:
gonzo journalism without the machismo."
--New York "This nonfiction look at the sex lives of three American
women will be whispered about around pools from coast to
coast."
--Town & Country "A deeply reported, elegantly written, almost
uncomfortably intimate portrait of three American women . . .
Taddeo reveals something universal in each of their stories . . .
The result is a nonfiction book that feels as close to its subjects
as a novel, like Adrien Nicole LeBlanc's Random Family, or Anne
Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down."
--Matt Haber, Columbia Journalism Review "What makes Three Women so
remarkable and indelible, and also so refreshingly out-of-step with
the tenor of the present moment, is Taddeo's refusal to judge these
'characters.' She is not particularly interested in determining who
is right, who is wrong, and who is to blame. Intensity and
compulsion draw her to these stories like tractor beams. What most
fascinates her is how sexual desire transfigures the entire tissue
of a personality and changes the course of lives."
--Laura Miller, Slate "A dazzling achievement . . . Three Women
burns a flare-bright path through the dark woods of women's
sexuality. In sentences that are as sharp--and bludgeoning, at
times--as an ax, she retains the accuracy and integrity of
nonfiction but risks the lyrical depths of prose and poetry."
--Margaret Wappler, Los Angeles Times "A revolutionary look at
women's desire, this feat of journalism reveals three women who are
carnal, brave, and beautifully flawed."
--People (Book of the Week) "An extraordinary study of female
desire . . . To write this kind of nonfiction--it's true, but reads
like a novel--Taddeo smartly employs not only interviews but also
diary entries, legal documents, letters, emails and text messages.
The result is a book as exhaustively reported and as elegantly
written as Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers or Adrian
Nicole LeBlanc's Random Family. . . . Taddeo's language is at its
best--sublime, even--when she describes the pain of desire left
unfulfilled."
--Elizabeth Flock, The Washington Post "Three Women reads like a
nonfiction novel in the deeply embedded, richly detailed vein of
Truman Capote's In Cold Blood or Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air. . .
. It's Taddeo's deep, almost feverish commitment to detail and
context that elevates the stories, making them feel not just
painfully real but revelatory. In her efforts to explore 'the
nuances of desire that hold the truth of who we are at our rawest
moments, ' she actually does much more: By peeling back the layers
with such clear-eyed compassion, Taddeo illuminates the essential,
elemental mystery of what it is to be a woman in the world."
--Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly "The protagonists in Lisa
Taddeo's new book, Three Women, are not unusual in their
complicated sexual histories; what makes their stories
revolutionary is the exquisite candor with which Taddeo gives them
voice. In the tradition of Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's Random Family or
Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Taddeo's book--her
first--is a work of deep observation, long conversations, and a
kind of journalistic alchemy. Taddeo spent years with the subjects
of Three Women, and the investment pays off. . . . She seamlessly
weaves together everyday details and startlingly intimate moments
into narratives that feel as real, as vital, as the pulse in your
wrist. . . . As the three women's tales alternate, Taddeo narrates
with a magically light touch, inhabiting each so fully we feel as
if we're living alongside them. The book is sexually explicit--you
might blush when reading it--but it never feels gratuitous or
clinical. Its prose is gorgeous, nearly lyrical as it describes the
longings and frustrations that propel these ordinary women.
Blending the skills of an ethnographer and a poet, Taddeo renders
them extraordinary."
--Kate Tuttle, NPR "Three Women explores female desire in intimate
detail, creating an emotionally charged work of nonfiction that's
as propulsive as any thriller."
--The A.V. Club "Three Women is a battle cry. . . . Taddeo never
judges. She doesn't slip into pseudopsychological frameworks for
sex. She inhabits her subjects. And if you think her topic sounds a
little louche, or isn't quite your thing, the true magic of this
book may lie less in the subject matter and more in the style. . .
. It's the literary brilliance of the book that will knock you
back-how she channels these women's voices through her own. . . .
For anyone who thinks they know what women want, this book is an
alarm, and its volume is turned all the way up."
--Lea Carpenter, Time "The hype for Three Women is real. In fact,
it's insufficient. . . . Each sentence glows with an insight you
won't want to forget."
--Elena Nicolaou, Refinery29 "An emotionally powerful and
narratively enthralling portrait of these women's--and indeed many
women's--wants, needs, pains, pleasures, and heartbreaks."
--Real Simple "Searing . . . The stories of Taddeo's subjects,
Sloane, Lina and Maggie, all feature the illicit--threesomes,
dominance and submission, underage sex--and each includes a hefty
dose of good old-fashioned adultery. . . . The result is effective
and affecting. . . . Taddeo reveals an avalanche of evidence, as if
we needed more, that the cozy comforts of marriage and its
defining, confining attribute, monogamy, provide the perfect petri
dish for combustible sex--with someone other than your spouse."
--New York Times Book Review "Intensively reported . . . An
immersion course in the rituals and consciousness of individuals
expressing their desires . . . You come away disturbed,
entertained, jolted, and ultimately longing for a cigarette."
--Boris Kachka, Vulture "A riveting page-turner that explores
desire, heartbreak, and infatuation in all its messy, complicated
nuance."
--The Washington Post "Revealing . . . Taddeo has created a work of
nonfiction that unfolds like an intriguing beach read. . . . We're
privy to their deepest insecurities and most vivid sexual
encounters."
--Maris Kreizman, The Wall Street Journal "Captivating,
discomfiting, voyeuristic . . . You'll want to pass your copy on to
a friend as soon as you've read it; it's a book that begs
discussion."
--Vanity Fair "Rather than dealing in cheap titillation, the author
crafts engaging narratives. . . . Three Women captures the pain and
powerlessness of desire as well as its heady joys."
--The Economist "An extraordinary book . . . In weaving these
stories together, Taddeo paints an electrifying picture of female
desire, and of the pain men casually inflict in their pursuit of
sexual pleasure. She writes in searing prose that seems to capture
every nuance. . . . At times there are biblical resonances to the
prose. This seems entirely appropriate in work that is intended to
capture the primal, scorching, life-changing power of sexual desire
amid the banality of our daily lives. It doesn't just aim. It
succeeds. Three Women is an astonishing act of imaginative empathy
and a gift to women around the world who feel 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 a book
can do much more."
--The Sunday Times (UK) "If it is not the best book about women and
desire that has ever been written, then it is certainly the best
book about the subject that I have ever come across. When I picked
it up, I felt I'd been waiting half my life to read it; when I put
it down, it was as though I had been disemboweled. . . . There
isn't a woman alive who won't recognize--her stomach lurching, her
heart beating wildly--something of what Maggie, Lina, and Sloane go
through."
--Rachel Cooke, The Guardian "Taddeo has a strong sense of
storytelling, setting hooks in each woman's early chapters before
circling back and unfolding their narratives with greater depth.
Her short, punchy sentences, eye for telling details, and the
wellsprings of conveyed emotion make for a charged, heady read. . .
. Taddeo makes palpable the pangs of yearning, and how it can feel
to have one's needs long go unfulfilled and then at last
satisfied."
--Laura Adamczyk, The A.V. Club "Three Women is an extraordinary
piece of nonfiction--a page-rippingly intimate and compelling
narration of the desires and sexual proclivities of three real
women, how those desires and proclivities were shaped, and the ways
in which their communities and society judge them. . . . She does
not sensationalize, but nor is she coy; the narrative crackles with
visceral details of eroticism: blood, semen, plucking nipple hairs
before a date. The result feels like a new genre--as a reader, I
frequently forgot that I wasn't immersed in fiction--and is already
one of the most talked-about books of the year."
--The Times (UK) "A heartbreaking, gripping, astonishing
masterpiece, Three Women is destined to join the canon both of
journalistic excellence and feminist literature."
--Esquire "Taddeo is stellar at embodying the women, taking on the
voice of each in turn. It produces a feeling that the reader is
sitting down over coffee to listen to the deeply personal and
frequently painful stories of Maggie, Lina, and Sloane. . . . With
the disparate threads of these stories, Taddeo weaves complex
connections between her subjects' desires."
--Bryn Greenwood, The Washington Post "Three Women is a gripping,
moving, haunting account of something that is at once fundamental
to who we are and often obscured, even from ourselves. The way
these three women tease out what they want from what they think
they want--the sensations and the emotions, the connections and the
atmosphere--transcends sensuality to become something raw,
vulnerable, and human. Taddeo's remarkable way with language cuts
to the quick, elevates the quotidian, and makes for a page-turning
read."
--Bridey Heing, Bust "This is one of the most riveting, assured,
and scorchingly original debuts I've ever read. Taddeo's
beautifully written and unflinching portraits of desire allow her
protagonists to be wholly human and wholly, blessedly complex. I
can't imagine a scenario where this isn't one of the more
important--and breathlessly debated--books of the year."
--Dave Eggers, author of The Monk of Mokha "Three Women offers a
fascinating excavation of the intricacies of love and desire, where
they conspire and where they conflict. Read this book. You will
forever rethink the erotics of women."
--Esther Perel, author of Mating in Captivity "I literally could
not put it down. An unflinching dissection of female desire so
poetically described, I forgot it was nonfiction. Lisa Taddeo makes
a gorgeous, unabashed debut. Wow."
--Gwyneth Paltrow on Instagram "Taddeo braids together the women's
narratives, which adds both suspense and heft as their
desire-biographies echo and diverge. Her distinct proximity to her
subjects shows in the intimate fantasies, scorching encounters, and
profound pains they relate through her, but, the power resting
fully with them, this never becomes voyeuristic. Instead, she
allows them to be defined not by their jobs, kids, or,
significantly, the men in their lives, but by a deep and essential
part of themselves. Readers will almost certainly fly through this,
and want to talk about it."
--Booklist (starred review) "This is an unusual, startling, and
gripping debut. It feels to me like the kind of bold, timely,
once-in-a-generation book that every house should have a copy of,
and probably will before too long."
--Megan Nolan, The New Statesman "Three Women is the new required
reading for women and any person who wants to know them. Taddeo has
given these women's testimonies of desire, love, and trauma a
brilliance and dignity that is nothing short of revolutionary."
--Stephanie Danler, author of Sweetbitter "A master class in
empathy, Lisa Taddeo's revelatory work of narrative nonfiction is
already shaping up to be a feminist touchstone for years to come. .
. . At once epic and intimate, Three Women is an essential
exploration of female desire and its consequences in a patriarchal
society."
--Harper's Bazaar "Taddeo spent eight years studying the emotional
landscape of three women as it related to their love and sex lives.
What results is a book more engrossing than any soap--a book that
pays deep and solemn attention to the link between a woman's body
and heart, and her sense of self."
--Refinery29 "This book--challenging and heartbreaking--will stay
with me. An extraordinary, documentary deep dive into the
psychology of women and sex and the stories we tell ourselves.
Three Women is as unputdownable as the most page-turning
fiction."
--Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You "Three Women is the honest
portrayal of female desire that 2019 demands."
--Marie Claire "Three Women is my favorite kind of non-fiction:
absorbing, narratively compelling, and replete with portrayals of
complete humans. Lisa Taddeo spent eight years with the three women
whose stories she tells here, and the resulting portrait of their
sex lives is completely riveting."
--Jessie Gaynor, Lit Hub "It's been years since I've read a book as
propulsive, engrossing, mind-bending, and required as Lisa Taddeo's
Three Women. On the surface, it's an account of how desire
organizes, disrupts, and sometimes threatens to destroy the lives
of its three heroines--and that, it seems, is the only way they'd
have it. In this age of social media, when the most superficial
forms of connection and engagement are touted as their opposites,
Three Women reads like an antidote for our technologically-driven
isolation and loneliness. It is the deepest dive into our
neighbors' consciousnesses that I've ever read, so immersive it
approaches the Tolstoyan, and its narcotic pleasures mainline the
only thing that can truly save us: empathy."
--Adam Ross, author of Mr. Peanut "Three Women is painstaking,
painful, unblinking, unsentimental, and utterly unapologetic. Lisa
Taddeo comes scarily close to proving the truth of a line uttered
by a character in an Antonya Nelson story: 'Love is sadness.' "
--David Shields, author of The Trouble With Men: Reflections on
Sex, Love, Marriage, Porn, and Power "If you guzzled all of Esther
Perel's couples counselling podcast or wonder whether those [New
York magazine] sex diaries can possibly be real, here's your summer
read. Lisa Taddeo draws on eight years of research to render three
portraits of real women and their experiences of desire, coupling,
and relationships."
--Elle, "The 30 Best Books to Read This Summer" "Taddeo takes
readers inside the lives of three women whose lives were profoundly
influenced by choices they made regarding sexuality. Written in
beautiful prose, Taddeo's take makes the nonfiction stories come
alive in a collection you won't be able to put down."
--Newsweek "Dexterous and suspenseful . . . The stories of Maggie,
Lina, and Sloane are offered here without judgment, which allows
readers to objectively view their multivalent experiences. With
Three Women, a heavyweight and a knockout both, Taddeo makes it
possible for each woman to be the agent of her own
storytelling."
--Shelf Awareness "Dramatic, immersive . . . Based on eight years
of reporting and thousands of hours of interaction, a journalist
chronicles the inner worlds of three women's erotic desires. . . .
Instead of sensationalizing, the author illuminates Maggie's,
Lina's, and Sloane's erotic experiences in the context of their
human complexities and personal histories, revealing deeper wounds
and emotional yearnings."
--Kirkus Reviews
Ask a Question About this Product More... |