Overview

""Jaw-dropping . . . Inspiring . . . A haunting and beautifully composed book . . . It blew my mind."" --Lisa Taddeo, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Three Women A fearless exposé of the secrets and lies of women's intimate lives, by the bestselling author of The Perfect Nanny, Adèle, and In the Country of Others ""All those in positions of authority--politicians, parents, teachers--maintain the same line: 'Do what you like, but do it in private.' "" Leila Slimani was in her native Morocco promoting her novel Adèle, about a woman addicted to sex, when she began meeting women who confided the dark secrets of their sexual lives. In Morocco, adultery, abortion, homosexuality, prostitution, and sex outside of marriage are all punishable by law, and women have only two choices: They can be wives or virgins. Sex and Lies combines vivid, often harrowing testimonies with Slimani's passionate and intelligent commentary to make a galvanizing case for a sexual revolution in the Arab world.

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9780143133766

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Reviews

Vivid, at times unbearable testimonies . . . In an act of rare humility and generosity, Slimani offers [these women] what they've been deprived of: a space to tell their stories, to exist. --San Francisco Chronicle Challenge[s] one of the Arab world's great taboos . . . [and] provides a rare, and perhaps unique, look into a patriarchal Arab society laden with hypocrisy. --The Times (London) Fascinating and surprising. --Elle (France) A nuanced and pragmatic reflection on the situation of women in Morocco and in the Arab-Muslim world. --L'Express

Vivid, at times unbearable testimonies . . . In an act of rare humility and generosity, Slimani offers [these women] what they've been deprived of: a space to tell their stories, to exist. --San Francisco Chronicle Potent . . . An ensemble portrait of women drawn together through the force of pressures they all face . . . Slimani keeps a light presence in the interviews, not unlike Svetlana Alexievich's conversations with former Soviet women soldiers. --John Freeman, Lit Hub Challenge[s] one of the Arab world's great taboos . . . [and] provides a rare, and perhaps unique, look into a patriarchal Arab society laden with hypocrisy. --The Times (London) Fascinating and surprising. --Elle (France) A nuanced and pragmatic reflection on the situation of women in Morocco and in the Arab-Muslim world. --L'Express

Vivid, at times unbearable testimonies . . . In an act of rare humility and generosity, Slimani offers [these women] what they've been deprived of: a space to tell their stories, to exist. --San Francisco Chronicle Potent . . . An ensemble portrait of women drawn together through the force of pressures they all face . . . Slimani keeps a light presence in the interviews, not unlike Svetlana Alexievich's conversations with former Soviet women soldiers. --John Freeman, Lit Hub A passionate, candid, and convincing narrative of unmasking and revelation. --Kirkus Reviews I salute Leila Slimani for writing this important, honest and brave book. . . . As a writer from a Turkish background, I am moved by Slimani's words. The women she talks to could just as well have been Lebanese, Syrian, Jordanian, Palestinian, Iranian, Turkish. ---Elif Shafak, New Statesman Like Adele did before it, this slim book of impassioned pleas, and of human impulses that resonate, is one step to more women breaking free. --Evening Standard Challenge[s] one of the Arab world's great taboos . . . [and] provides a rare, and perhaps unique, look into a patriarchal Arab society laden with hypocrisy. --The Times (London) Fascinating and surprising. --Elle (France) A nuanced and pragmatic reflection on the situation of women in Morocco and in the Arab-Muslim world. --L'Express

Author Information

Leila Slimani is the bestselling author of The Perfect Nanny, one of The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the Year, for which she became the first Moroccan woman to win France's most prestigious literary prize, the Goncourt. Her first novel, Adèle, about a sex-addicted woman in Paris, won the La Mamounia Prize for the best book by a Moroccan author written in French and gave rise to Sex and Lies. A journalist and frequent commentator on women's and human rights, Slimani spearheaded a campaign--for which she won the Simone de Beauvoir Prize for women's freedom--to help Moroccan women speak out, as self-declared outlaws, against their country's ""unfair and obsolete laws."" She is French president Emmanuel Macron's personal representative for the promotion of the French language and culture and was ranked #2 on Vanity Fair France's annual list of the Fifty Most Influential French People in the World. Born in Rabat, Morocco, in 1981, she now lives in Paris with her French husband and their two young children.

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