An instant New York Times bestseller, Want is a collection of confessions from women around the world. This revelatory, sensational and game-changing exploration of women’s sexuality asks, and answers: How do women feel about sex when they have the freedom to be totally anonymous?
What do women think about when they think about sex? What do they secretly desire? What do they want? For this bold and insightful book, inspired by Nancy Friday’s My Secret Garden, Gillian Anderson collected the anonymous letters of hundreds of self-identifying women from around the world to gain a better understanding of women’s deepest, most intimate fantasies and fears, the kind of things that usually remain locked away until someone comes along with the key.
Gillian Anderson was just that person. In Want, she has carefully selected over a hundred of the best and most revealing of these erotically charged letters and arranged them for readers along with her own original essays. Here are women’s secret fantasies for safety and acceptance, for two partners or three partners (or more), for all genders, for watching or being watched, for finding release in complete abandon or satisfaction in submission, and for encounters with strangers or with someone they know. Uninhibited and at times shocking, Want is a riotous portrait of women’s imagination, need, and sexual diversity.
Praise
"Want makes for addictive reading ... Compelling."
—THE GUARDIAN
"Extremely sexy."
—COSMOPOLITAN
"Every human sexual desire is finally mysterious, unknowable, but there is no doubt that across the ages women's desire has been perceived as dangerous . . . Anderson allows those desires to speak."
—FINANCIAL TIMES
"Want is an intriguing cabinet of curiosities showcasing the sheer glorious variety of female desire; at a time when women's freedom of expression and agency is under threat in so many places, any platform that allows us to speak up about an aspect of our lives that is still frequently veiled in shame is to be applauded."
—OBSERVER (UK)
"You might have the same question I did: Would a book loosely patterned on an erotic bestseller published 50 years ago feel relevant in an age when every manner of sexual imagery and performance, real-life hookups and kink are available in the palm of our hands (so to speak) with a swipe, tap or text? The answer is a definitive yes."
—WASHINGTON POST
