One of the most riveting, assured and scorchingly original debuts I've ever read ... I can't imagine a scenario where this isn't one of the more important - and breathlessly debated - books of the year' DAVE EGGERS

It's the nuances of desire that hold the truth of who we are at our rawest of moments. I set out to register the heat and sting of female want so that men and other women might more easily comprehend before they condemn. Because it's the quotidian minutes of our lives that will go on forever, that will tell us who we were, who our neighbors and our mothers were, when we were too diligent in thinking they were nothing like us. This is the story of three women.

Three Women is an examination of female desire told by a woman who, for eight years, talked to three other women. It is a record of unmet needs, unspoken thoughts, disappointments, hopes and unrelenting obsessions that will change what is permissible for women to reveal about themselves.

The result is a visceral and provocative feat of narrative non-fiction in which the intimacies of three lives coalesce to form a major, revelatory portrait of female desire.

Lisa Taddeo has contributed to New York magazine, Esquire, Elle, Glamour and many other publications. Her short stories have won two Pushcart Prizes. She lives with her husband and daughter in Connecticut.