Permission

Echo is a failing actress who prefers to lose herself in the lives of others rather than examine her own. When her father disappears in a seaside misstep, she and her mother are left grief-stricken, unsure of how to piece back together their family that, it turns out, had never been whole. But then Orly � a dominatrix � moves in across the street. And through her, Echo begins to find the pieces that will allow her to carry on. Set among the bright colours and harshly glittering lights of Los Angeles, this is a love story about people addled with dreams and expectations who turn to the erotic for answers.� ** Review ’Saskia Vogel’s provocative debut novel, Permission , is like a trick box full of sliding panels. Her protagonist, jarred loose from her life by the accidental death of her father, finds that the boundaries she’s always taken as given begin to slide open, revealing secret zones of power and sexuality within the world and within herself. Beautifully written, mysterious, and compelling.’ --Janet Fitch, Author of White Oleander ’Like Didion, Vogel is all about atmosphere and can burnish a sentence down to a Stingrays’s taillight’s perfection.’ -- John Freeman, Lithub ’[A] delicate portrayal of multiple slippery aspects of sexuality’ -- Stoya ’This book may be the love child of Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts ... and E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey .’ -- Laura Winnick, Broadly, ’9 books that will get your through 2019’ ’[A] daring and thoughtful study of love, loss, and pain.’ -- Publishers Weekly From the Author "A grieving young woman learns something new about love from a dominatrix in this haunting and erotic debut. When Echo's father gets swept away by a freak current off the Los Angeles coast, she enters a state of paralysis. The failed young actress seeks solace in the best way she knows: by losing herself in the lives of others. This time it's with her new neighbour, a dominatrix named Orly who works out of her suburban home, and who introduces Echo to a whole new world of desire. But Orly's fifty-something houseboy won't quite let Echo slip into sweet oblivion? Set among the bright colours of L.A., Permission is a kind of love story about three people sick with dreams and expectations who turn to the erotic for comfort and cure. As they stumble through the landscape of desire, they ask themselves: how do I want to be loved?"-- Provided by publisher A grieving young woman learns something new about love from a dominatrix in this haunting & erotic debut. Echo is a failing actress who prefers to lose herself in the lives of others rather than examine her own. When her father disappears in a seaside misstep, she & her mother are left grief-stricken, unsure of how to piece back together their family that, it turns out, had never been whole. But then Orly -- a dominatrix -- moves in across the street. And through her, Echo begins to find the pieces that will allow her to carry on. Set among the bright colours & harshly glittering lights of Los Angeles, this is a love story about people addled with dreams & expectations who turn to the erotic for answers.°°°Saskia Vogel is a writer, screenwriter, & translator from Swedish & German into English. A grieving young woman learns something new about love from a dominatrix in this haunting and erotic debut. Echo is a failing actress who prefers to lose herself in the lives of others rather than examine her own. When her father disappears in a seaside misstep, she and her mother are left grief-stricken, unsure of how to piece back together their family that, it turns out, had never been whole. But then Orly -- a dominatrix -- moves in across the street. And through her, Echo begins to find the pieces that will allow her to carry on. Set among the bright colours and harshly glittering lights of Los Angeles, this is a love story about people addled with dreams and expectations who turn to the erotic for answers.

Echo is a failing actress who prefers to lose herself in the lives of others rather than examine her own. When her father disappears in a seaside misstep, she and her mother are left grief-stricken, unsure of how to piece back together their family that, it turns out, had never been whole. But then Orly – a dominatrix – moves in across the street. And through her, Echo begins to find the pieces that will allow her to carry on. Set among the bright colours and harshly glittering lights of Los Angeles, this is a love story about people addled with dreams and expectations who turn to the erotic for answers.