The Surrender: An Erotic Memoir

The outrageously intimate memoir that became a media sensation...

From the author of four New York Times Notable Books: The Surrender is a shocking story of sexual and spiritual awakening, inspired by what is perhaps the last remaining sexual taboo.

Toni Bentley was a ballet dancer. Intensely disciplined, rational, and self-absorbed, she had experienced plenty of sex with both men and women but remained, at her core, an emotional virgin—that is, until she met “A.” The Surrender is Bentley’s tale of finding “the joy that lies on the other side of comfort”—a compelling, startlingly personal story of one woman’s obsession.

This New York Times Notable Book is a stunning story of sexual and spiritual awakening.

Few women do it and even fewer will admit to it. But in Toni Bentley's daring and intimate memoir, The Surrender, she pulls the sheets back on an erotic experience that's been forbidden since the Bible and celebrates "the joy that lies on the other side of convention, where risk is real and rapture resides." From Story of O to The Kiss to The Sexual Life of Catherine M, readers have been enthralled with sexually subversive memoirs by women. But even those erotic classics didn't navigate the psychosexual terrain that Bentley does when she meets a lover who introduces her to a radical and unexpected pleasure, to the "holy" act that she came to see as her awakening.

The Surrender is a witty, intelligent, and eloquent exploration of one woman's obsession that will be sure to leave readers questioning their own desires.

“Stylish and amusing.” - —Entertainment Weekly

“Brave.” - —New York Times Book Review

“Plucky.” - —The New York Observer

“Wonderfully smart and sexy and witty and moving.” - —Publishers Weekly starred review

“A small masterpiece of erotic writing.” - —Leon Wieseltier

“Revealing and witty.” - —Time Out New York

“Arousing, fascinating, and beautifully written, Toni Bentley’s The Surrender is a unique testimonial to one woman’s passion and intellect. Think Story of O with a high IQ and a sense of humor. . . . Bentley is shameless, brazen, and hot.” - —Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight and I, Fatty

“What Bentley has achieved in these pages is something rare and unexpected. Hers is an erotic journey neither prurient nor grandiose, resulting in a work of high literary ambition rendered unforgettable by its unflinching candor.” - —David M. Friedman, author of A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis