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“Friedman writes with the female fury of Ferrante.”—Lauren Yu-Ting Bo, On the Seawall
A daring, erotically charged novel about ambition, desire, and the dangerous pursuit of self-knowledge.
Ina is a 41-year-old literary scholar on the cusp of professional success. With a coveted university job, a kind husband, and a book on Eugene O’Neill due in months, her life appears enviably stable. But when an impulsive kiss with a stranger shatters her self-control, Ina finds herself plunged into an erotic and emotional freefall.
She tells herself it’s research—a brief detour before returning to real life. But what begins as a flirtation becomes a reckoning with everything Ina thought she wanted: marriage, intellect, control. As she navigates the ecstatic confusion of newfound desire, she risks upending her work, her relationship, and her understanding of who she is.
Set in Brooklyn and Manhattan at the turn of the millennium, Don’t Stop is a bold, immersive debut that explores what happens when a woman dares to want more—of the world, of her body, of herself. Bonnie Friedman delivers a novel of transgression, transformation, and unapologetic longing.
“A moving, laser-eyed story about love, desire, betrayal, and destiny, which manages, mysteriously, to be simultaneously funny and profound.”—Michael Cunningham
“Luminous, evocative, and original.”—Christina Baker Kline
Praise for Don’t Stop
“Don’t Stop is a moving, laser-eyed story about love, desire, betrayal, and destiny, which manages, mysteriously, to be simultaneously funny and profound. Not to mention the fact that the whole exquisitely-wrought, deeply human story springs from a kiss to rival the kiss that brought Snow White back to life.”—Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours and Day
“With hypnotizing imagery, Don't Stop tells a compelling story of a scholar in search of satisfaction in her life whose quest leads her beyond the conundrum of her marriage, her family of origin, and her academic career, to a new realm she never imagined—the furthest reaches of her own sexuality. Where this takes her is the subject of this gorgeous depiction of the journey of a soul. This is one of those novels where readers will be as eager to keep turning the pages as they are to savor every sentence slowly. I hated for it to end.”—Alice Elliott Dark, author of Fellowship Point and In the Gloaming
“In this daring, compelling novel, we are invited into the world of Ina, a 41-year-old woman embarking on a journey of self-discovery and awakening. Don’t Stop elegantly uncovers the concealed dimensions of desire. It is luminous, evocative, and original.”—Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times best-selling novelist
“Don’t Stop is a masterly portrait of Ina, a 41-year-old married woman on the run from the prosaic and the unexciting in her life. Her fearless search for deeply buried erotic desires allows her to reevaluate her complex relationships and open a hidden door into her true self. It is a powerful and moving story of urgent quest and stunning self-discovery, a book you won't be able to put down.”—Elena Gorokhova, author of A Train to Moscow
“I’ve been waiting my whole life for this novel, a book that’s as sexy as it is smart, as sophisticated as it is compelling. You don’t have to pick between body and brains with Bonnie Friedman’s Don’t Stop, a novel that has it all. I’m going to quick join a book group so I can dish about Don’t Stop with a bunch of ladies over a bottle of wine. Joyous, provocative, propulsive, Don’t Stop is destined to be the best book club book ever.”—Pamela Redmond, New York Times best-selling author of Younger
“Long one of our finest writers of literary nonficton, Bonnie Friedman now makes a triumphant debut as a novelist. Don’t Stop is warm, moving, frequently hilarious, and bursting with life.”—Brian Morton, author of Starting Out in the Evening and Tasha: A Son’s Memoir
“Friedman writes with the female fury of Ferrante... Don’t Stop is an unflinching, and often humorous, take on middle-aged sex and romantic entanglement... A complex portrait of self-discovery in middle age and a reminder that we are never done finding ourselves.”—Lauren Yu-Ting Bo, On the Seawall
“Neither raucous nor raunchy... this is a well-mannered and funny novel about what happens when the heart rebels against the mind, and the body demands that “‘what was growling up from deep within you didn’t deserve to be ignored.’”—Kirkus Reviews
“This coming-of-middle-age story explores a woman’s obsessive affair and the unraveling of her life... A fiction debut that will appeal to fans of Miranda July’s All Fours.”—Booklist
Praise for Writing Past Dark
“A wonderful book, profoundly honest, intelligent, and beautifully written... Humor abounds in this bold and generous book... We cannot read this collection and come away unmoved.”—Harvard Review
“Intimate, honest, liberating.”—Forward
Praise for The Thief of Happiness
“Strangely profound... [an author] with a great eye for detail.”—The Washington Post
“Compulsively readable.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
“Excellent in the way H.D.’s [Tribute to Freud] is: it illuminates the intricate, murky relationship between therapy and real life... Friedman is at her best when relaying the delicately nuanced exchanges that occur between the patient and therapist.”—Publishers Weekly
Praise for Surrendering Oz:
“[A] fascinating read. Each of Friedman's observations is microscopic in its precision, but her collected wisdom, prolific and sprawling among so many topics, could fill a sea.”—The Rumpus
“One of the 10 great books by a small press. A top pick.”—Reader's Digest
“Almost an instructional manual for midlife... A must for students of creative writing.”—Library Journal
“I find my life on every page, it is universal. Every woman who can read should read this book.”—Abigail Thomas, A Three Dog Life