All Fours

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST A BBC TWO BETWEEN THE COVERS PICK A BEST SUMMER READING PICK FOR THE TIMES, THE DAILY MAIL, THE FT AND THE GUARDIAN A 2024 BOOK OF THE YEAR PICK FOR BBC R4 OPEN BOOK, THE OBSERVER, THE GUARDIAN, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, GQ, GRAZIA, HERO, i-D, NYLON, VULTURE, READINGS A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST FICTIONAL VOICES OF 2024 PICK A semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country from LA to NY. Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey. Miranda July's second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July's wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman's quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic and domestic life of a 45-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectations while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive. Review: It's very funny, quite dirty, and deeply profound, with a fragile magic that comes from entering an uncensored inner world. There is the added thrill as well, of July suggesting that midlife, and menopause in particular, might be kind of . . . hot * * Observer * * Rage, grief, lust, sadness, selfishness; this stunning book and July's nameless heroine have it all. I cannot wait to read it all over again -- GILLIAN ANDERSON A life-changer for me. I thought I was reading about middle age, then I thought I was reading about menopause, then motherhood, then sexuality, then monogamy, then marriage. And by the final page I realised I was reading about existence and death and I couldn't stop crying. Plus it's so funny and it's so horny. My favourite novel of this year -- DOLLY ALDERTON A giddy, bold, mind-blowing tour de force by one of our most important literary writers. Funny, honest, rich with the energy of the mind, All Fours will jump-start your relation to language and cause you to think anew about the nature of desire -- GEORGE SAUNDERS Transcendent . . . A book that emboldens you. To read it, is to feel gloriously, unashamedly alive -- PANDORA SYKES Wild and outrageous, provocative and entirely unpredictable -- DAVID NICHOLLS Essential . . . A book of vast scope, taking in men and women, the mind and the body, and society and solitude * * Guardian * * July comes into her own [and] brings a new perspective . . . A menopause novel that's never boring * * Sunday Times * * Voyeuristic and exploratory . . . Miranda July compels us with her provocations * * Times Literary Supplement * * Bonkers and brilliant . . . amazing -- LOUIS THEROUX Prizes: Short-listed for National Book Award, Fiction 2024 (United States). Author Biography: Miranda July is a writer, filmmaker and artist. Her debut novel, The First Bad Man, was an instant New York Times bestseller, and her collection of stories, No One Belongs Here More Than You, won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. Her writing has appeared in the Paris Review, Harper's and the New Yorker. July lives in Los Angeles.