Permission

'Beautifully written, mysterious and compelling' Janet Fitch, bestselling author of White Oleander

'An addictive read you'll finish within hours' Stylist

'Vogel is a gleaming new talent' Observer

'An alternative feminist love story for the modern age' Big Issue

'Refreshing' Guardian

'Dreamy' Oprah Magazine

A raw, fresh, haunting, emotionally and sexually honest literary debut.

When Echo's father gets swept away by a freak current off the Los Angeles coast, she finds herself sinking into a complete state of paralysis. With no true friends and a troubled relationship with her mother, the failed young actress attempts to seek solace in the best way she knows: by losing herself in the lives of strangers. When, by chance, Echo meets a dominatrix called Orly, it finally feels like she might have found someone who will be nurturing and treasure her for who she is. But Orly's fifty-something houseboy, Piggy, isn't quite ready to let someone else share the intimate relationship he's worked so hard to form with his mistress.

Permission is a love story about people who are sick with dreams and expectations and turn to the erotic for comfort and cure. As they stumble through the landscape of desire, they are in a desperate search for the answer to that sacred question: how do I want to be loved?

“Formidable in its elegance and fierce in its simplicity, Saskia Vogel's writing leaves the reader stunned and moved and wanting more.”

In Saskia Vogel's debut novel, Permission, desire is explored in its rich entirety and complexity, in its intersections with every day life, stress and lingering grief Times Literary Supplement Permission conveys [Echo's] preoccupation with desire through visceral prose that imbues everything - from the unstable California landscape to the banalities of affluent suburbia - with sensuality -- Natasha Young The Believer This [is] dreamy, whip-smart first fiction Oprah Magazine Vogel's portrayal of sexual kink is particularly refreshing: rather than pruriently gorging on catharsis, Permission foregrounds the emotional intimacy - built on constancy, trust and compassion - that can flourish in the most unconventional relationships Guardian The debut literary novel from a journalist and translator, and it deals with sexual politics, power and consent in a subtle and convincing way . . . Vogel negotiates her story with a real sense of empathy and understanding for all her characters. In precise, elegant prose, she delivers an alternative feminist love story for the modern age Big Issue [Permission] delicately explores all the things that are part and parcel of our sexual lives: intimacy, community, desire, alienation, consent and power HUCK Magazine A story about grief, loneliness and sadomasochism . . . it challenges any preconceptions you might have about BDSM in literature . . . Permission is sometimes a dark, even gruelling, read. But it possesses an unshowy beauty, too, suggesting Vogel is a gleaming new talent -- Arifa Akbar Observer (New Review) Vogel's writing is beauty in motion. From capturing a humiliating date with a predatory agent to what attracts people to BDSM, this is an addictive read you'll finish within hours Stylist Permission excavates the uncertain landscape that lies just beneath the Hollywood dream factory we think we all know and against all odds finds something sacred there Ryan Ruby, author of The Zero and the One Beautifully written, mysterious and compelling Janet Fitch Formidable in its elegance and fierce in its simplicity, Saskia Vogel's writing leaves the reader stunned and moved and wanting more Andrea Scrima, author of A Lesser Day

Saskia Vogel is from Los Angeles and lives in Berlin, where she works as a writer and Swedish-to-English literary translator. She has written on power and sexuality for publications such as Paris Review Daily, The White Review, Sight and Sound, and The Offing. Previously, she worked as Granta magazine's publicist and as an editor at the

AVN Media Network, where she reported on pornography and adult pleasure products.

'Beautifully written, mysterious and compelling' Janet Fitch, bestselling author of White Oleander 'An addictive read you'll finish within hours' Stylist 'Vogel is a gleaming new talent' Observer 'An alternative feminist love story for the modern age' Big Issue 'Refreshing' Guardian 'Dreamy' Oprah Magazine A raw, fresh, haunting, emotionally and sexually honest literary debut. When Echo's father gets swept away by a freak current off the Los Angeles coast, she finds herself sinking into a complete state of paralysis. With no true friends and a troubled relationship with her mother, the failed young actress attempts to seek solace in the best way she knows: by losing herself in the lives of strangers. When, by chance, Echo meets a dominatrix called Orly, it finally feels like she might have found someone who will be nurturing and treasure her for who she is. But Orly's fifty-something houseboy, Piggy, isn't quite ready to let someone else share the intimate relationship he's worked so hard to form with his mistress. Permission is a love story about people who are sick with dreams and expectations and turn to the erotic for comfort and cure. As they stumble through the landscape of desire, they are in a desperate search for the answer to that sacred question: how do I want to be loved?

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