https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/dec/06/lisa-taddeo-interview-three-women

The US journalist spent eight years talking to three women about sex and desire – and had no idea the result would be a publishing sensation. She tells Hadley Freeman what happened next

The American author Lisa Taddeo would like some breakfast. But our waiter is thwarting her. “We don’t serve food in this part of the hotel, ma’am,” he says, adding that breakfast has finished when she suggests we move. “Is nothing available?” she persists. He barely restrains a sigh. “Is a croissant OK?” “Perfect!” she says, triumphant. With another sigh, he disappears in search of what Taddeo describes as “the illicit croissant”. She then leans over and whispers, “When he comes back I’m gonna freak him out and ask if I can now have scrambled eggs.”

In the past year, Taddeo has gone from being a relatively little known journalist to one of the most celebrated authors of 2019, thanks to her extraordinary debut book about women’s appetites and desires, and how men frustrate and warp them. Three Women, which has been a bestseller in the US and the UK, tells the true stories of Maggie, Lina and Sloane, each of whom, for utterly personal and yet profoundly relatable reasons, has a complicated understanding of their own needs. Maggie alleges she had a sexual relationship with her high school teacher, Aaron Knodel, and we meet her as she’s dealing with the emotional and legal aftermath. After being raped by three classmates as a teenager, Lina married a cold, undemonstrative man, and is now, as a mother of two, embarking on a frantic affair with an old boyfriend. Elegant, privileged Sloane has sex with other people so her husband can get a thrill from watching.