Daphne Merkin
“11 Minutes of Unconditional Love
is an arresting novel that explores the alchemy of contradictions that exist in all great works of literature. Observant and witty, Merkin makes each sentence pack a provocative wallop. So, come for the promise of a compulsively readable novel — “Obsession makes for good copy,” the narrator tells us — and stay for a fascinating lesson on the making of art."
—New York Times Book Review
A novel of unsurpassed candor, punctuated by bold ruminations on love, marriage, family, sex, gender and relationships, 11 Minutes of Unconditional Love depicts one woman's psychological descent into sexual captivity. This is the story of the extremes to which she will go to achieve erotic bliss—and of her struggle to regain her soul.
Daphne Merkin is the author of Enchantment (1986), which won the Edward Lewis Wallant Award for best novel on a Jewish theme and has just been reissued by Picador (2020). She has also published two collections of essays, The Fame Lunches (2014) and Dreaming of Hitler (1997), as well as a memoir about her struggle with depression, This Close to Happy (2017). As a former staff writer for The New Yorker, Merkin's cultural criticism frequently appears in The New York Times Book Review & Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Bookforum, New York Review of Books, The New Republic, Departures, Elle, Travel + Leisure, Tablet, and many other publications. Merkin has taught writing at the 92nd Street Y, Marymount Manhattan College, Hunter College and Columbia University’s MFA program. She lives in New York City and teaches private writing classes.
Other Works
