Don't Stop - by Bonnie Friedman (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A luminous, erotically charged novel about ambition, desire, and the dangerous pursuit of self-knowledge.

Ina is a 41-year-old literary scholar on the cusp of professional success. With a coveted university job, a kind husband, and a book on Eugene O'Neill due in months, her life appears enviably stable. But when an impulsive kiss with a stranger shatters her self-control, Ina finds herself plunged into an erotic and emotional freefall.

She tells herself it's research--a brief detour before returning to real life. But what begins as a flirtation becomes a reckoning with everything Ina thought she wanted: marriage, intellect, control. As she navigates the ecstatic confusion of newfound desire, she risks upending her work, her relationship, and her understanding of who she is.

Set in Brooklyn and Manhattan at the turn of the millennium, Don't Stop is a bold, immersive debut that explores what happens when a woman dares to want more--of the world, of her body, of herself. Bonnie Friedman delivers a novel of transgression, transformation, and unapologetic longing.

Review Quotes

"With hypnotizing imagery, Don't Stop tells a compelling story of a scholar in search of satisfaction in her life whose quest leads her beyond the conundrum of her marriage, her family of origin, and her academic career, to a new realm she never imagined--the furthest reaches of her own sexuality. Where this takes her is the subject of this gorgeous depiction of the journey of a soul. This is one of those novels where readers will be as eager to keep turning the pages as they are to savor every sentence slowly. I hated for it to end."--Alice Elliott Dark, author of Fellowship Point and In the Gloaming 

"In this daring, compelling novel, we are invited into the world of Ina, a 39-year-old woman embarking on a journey of self-discovery and awakening. Don't Stop elegantly uncovers the concealed dimensions of desire. It is luminous, evocative, and original."--Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times best-selling novelist