A “bold and unflinchingly sexy” (Vogue) debut novel about a young woman who follows her desires into a world of pleasure, decadence, and privilege, unraveling everything she thought she knew about sex . . . and herself.
“One of the most entertaining books about sex I’ve ever read . . . The perfect read for fans of Raven Leilani and Ottessa Moshfegh, this is a book that will have people talking.”—BuzzFeed
“A sex masterpiece.”—The Guardian
“Anytime I want, I can forsake this dinner party and jump into real life.”—Eve Babitz
Eve has an adoring girlfriend, an impulsive streak, and a secret fear that she’s wasting her brief youth with just one person. So one evening she posts some nudes online. This is how Eve meets Olivia, and through Olivia the charismatic Nathan. Despite her better instincts, the three soon begin a relationship—one that disturbs Eve as much as it enthralls her.
As each act of their complicated, three-way affair unfolds across a cold and glittering New York, Eve is forced to confront the questions that most consume her: What do we bring to sex? What does it reveal of ourselves, and one another? And how do we reconcile what we want with what we think we should want?
In the way only great fiction can, Acts of Service takes between its teeth the contradictions written all over our ideas of sex and sexuality. At once juicy and intellectually challenging, sacred and profane, Lillian Fishman’s riveting debut is bold, unabashed, and required reading of the most pleasurable sort.
Genre: Literary Fiction
“One of the most entertaining books about sex I’ve ever read . . . The perfect read for fans of Raven Leilani and Ottessa Moshfegh, this is a book that will have people talking.”—BuzzFeed
“A sex masterpiece.”—The Guardian
“Anytime I want, I can forsake this dinner party and jump into real life.”—Eve Babitz
Eve has an adoring girlfriend, an impulsive streak, and a secret fear that she’s wasting her brief youth with just one person. So one evening she posts some nudes online. This is how Eve meets Olivia, and through Olivia the charismatic Nathan. Despite her better instincts, the three soon begin a relationship—one that disturbs Eve as much as it enthralls her.
As each act of their complicated, three-way affair unfolds across a cold and glittering New York, Eve is forced to confront the questions that most consume her: What do we bring to sex? What does it reveal of ourselves, and one another? And how do we reconcile what we want with what we think we should want?
In the way only great fiction can, Acts of Service takes between its teeth the contradictions written all over our ideas of sex and sexuality. At once juicy and intellectually challenging, sacred and profane, Lillian Fishman’s riveting debut is bold, unabashed, and required reading of the most pleasurable sort.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"Seamlessly written, sedate and subtle and so pleasurable, and quite enrapturing on a psychological level. This book opens space for a new kind of precision and intelligence that gives the amoral opulence of desire its rightful place." - Niamh Campbell
"This book asks us to consider what it might mean to truly honour our own desires; however messy they might be. I loved it." - Keiran Goddard
"I was completely absorbed by this radical, daring and bracing novel about a so-cold and yet so-intimate world where safety and pleasure can only be found in the most unlikely and unpredictable of places. It is a book of exciting, provocative complexity, and, for me, it made the human creature feel like something new." - Sheila Heti
"Taut, thorny, and sublimely fraught, Acts of Service stares straight into the white-hot center of desire with a cool, incisive eye. This book is electric." - Alexandra Kleeman
"Acts of Service doesn't kiss you first; it gets right to it-depicting the liquid frequencies of need and power with a thoughtful, savage eye." - Raven Leilani
"I cannot recall the last time I felt this exhilarated and transformed by a novel. Acts of Service electrified both my mind and body. How can a story feel so smart and carnal at once? Lillian Fishman writes exquisitely about desire, pleasure, life with shattering clarity." - Sanaë Lemoine
"With deep eroticism and stunning prose, Lillian Fishman explores sex and the self with delicious seriousness and sensuality. I didn't want it to end." - Saskia Vogel
"A book of exquisite moral refinement and almost intimidating elegance." - Edmund White
"This book asks us to consider what it might mean to truly honour our own desires; however messy they might be. I loved it." - Keiran Goddard
"I was completely absorbed by this radical, daring and bracing novel about a so-cold and yet so-intimate world where safety and pleasure can only be found in the most unlikely and unpredictable of places. It is a book of exciting, provocative complexity, and, for me, it made the human creature feel like something new." - Sheila Heti
"Taut, thorny, and sublimely fraught, Acts of Service stares straight into the white-hot center of desire with a cool, incisive eye. This book is electric." - Alexandra Kleeman
"Acts of Service doesn't kiss you first; it gets right to it-depicting the liquid frequencies of need and power with a thoughtful, savage eye." - Raven Leilani
"I cannot recall the last time I felt this exhilarated and transformed by a novel. Acts of Service electrified both my mind and body. How can a story feel so smart and carnal at once? Lillian Fishman writes exquisitely about desire, pleasure, life with shattering clarity." - Sanaë Lemoine
"With deep eroticism and stunning prose, Lillian Fishman explores sex and the self with delicious seriousness and sensuality. I didn't want it to end." - Saskia Vogel
"A book of exquisite moral refinement and almost intimidating elegance." - Edmund White
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