If there was one novel that was passed giddily from hand to hand in the heady months of summer, it was artist, filmmaker, and writer Miranda July's All Fours. A steamy, disarming, and radically honest story about a 45-year-old woman who dares to imagine more for her intimate life than her marriage affords her, July's book sparked many a conversation about menopause, secret desires, and a thrilling vision of sexual freedom. In the novel, an unnamed protagonist—a successful artist whose bio feels reminiscent of July herself—tells her husband and child that she'll be driving from their home in Los Angeles to take a vacation in New York City, only to pull off the highway just a half hour out of town. In a dank motel on the outskirts of L.A., she connects with a much-younger man and opens a pathway to a different, more fulfilling way of living.
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Write to Lucy Feldman at lucy.feldman@time.com