An explosive novel of sex, secrecy, and escape by an anonymous writer.
A woman disappears. Her car lies abandoned on a remote bluff; no body is found. She was the good wife, the good mother: mannerly, quiet, self-contained. But she has left behind an incendiary diary chronicling a disturbing journey of sexual awakening.
As the diary opens on her honeymoon in Morocco, she believes herself to be happy – or happy enough, anyway. Swiftly, this security masquerading as love fractures in an act of massive betrayal, only to propel her into a world of desire and fantasy and recklessness. What begins for her in the imagination ends in a tangle of sheets, in drowning spiral of obsession and release. She finds an unlikely heroine to inspire her in a dusty, rare manuscript written by an anonymous woman in the 1600s, a cry from the heart for women to live and love freely. With this as guide, she dares to rupture convention, learning, for the first time, the intoxicating power of knowing what she wants and how to get it. The question is, how long can her soul sustain a perilous double life?
Coolly impassioned, ‘The Bride Stripped Bare’ tells shocking truths about love and sex. These are the kind of revelations that best friends whisper to each other and then decide to forget they ever revealed. Couched in a deceptively simple style, its gorgeous, incantatory rhythms will make you question whether it is ever entirely possible to know another person.
About the Author :
The author has had two previous novels published to critical acclaim, with reviewers hailing the freshness and power of her writing. In the tradition of women over the centuries, she has decided to conceal her name in order to allow herself utter freedom in the writing of this novel.
Review :
"Titillating...like an artful striptease, The Bride Stripped Bare ensnares us with its rawness." -- San Francisco Chronicle
"Artful...cannily perceptive...this unusual but strangely compelling novel offers an intimate chronicle of change and self-discovery." -- Publishers Weekly
"Unremitting, elegant and dark. I believe every woman should get married at least once, and read this novel twice." -- Suzanne Finnamore, author of Otherwise Engaged
"Escapist fiction as its intriguing best. 'The Bride Stripped Bare' is sexy with a capital X." -- Jill Davis, author of A Girl's Poker Night
"Simply too beautiful...a mesmerizing and disquieting novel that will deserve to be read again." -- Vogue Australia
"Wonderfully sensuous...witty in its construction...a subtle portrait of a modern marriage." -- Independent
"One of the few truly original voices to emerge in a long time." -- Time Out New York
"Superbly executed: suspense, psychodrama, anger, tenderness and terror mingle with the restlessness of a vast, overpowering landscape." -- London Times Literary Supplement
"A powerful novel that does not flinch from strong emotion or description...luminous." -- London Times
"A jazzy, nonlinear...narrative style as compelling and exotic as the landscape itself." -- Baltimore Sun
"A fierce, white-hot read." -- Booklist
"Sexual awakening for the dark horse in us all." -- Tatler
"The sex is rude and raunchy and exactly where you want it." -- Elle
"An intensely honest look at a woman's inner thoughts and desires." -- Dallas Morning News
