The Pleasures of the Other

Can three women of a certain age get the sex they want without blowing up their lives?

Lila, a therapist with a long-buried secret, is about to join a sex club with her husband.

Her friend Catherine, a divorced housewife who has never understood the point of sex, is dating for the first time in decades, never thinking that a girlfriend might be in her future.

And Miriam, a medical actor fed up with her philandering husband, has decided to have an affair with Kevin, a much younger waiter at the three friends' favorite restaurant.

Every week, the friends confide their fears, missteps, and triumphs, sharing french fries and shoulders to cry on. But when Lila's past comes back to haunt her, all their lives are set adrift, putting their futures and their friendship at risk, and the women learn that sexual satisfaction and happiness are not for the faint of heart.

The Pleasures of the Other is a funny, soulful depiction of "life after midlife," a portrait of three women who still hunger for love and sexual satisfaction. Debut novelist Sasha Arden delivers a frank—and frankly explicit—tale of sex, love and friendship among older women that readers will find amusing, arousing, and affecting in equal measure.