Permission

A raw, fresh, haunting, emotionally and sexually honest literary debut.

When Echo's father gets swept away by a freak current off the Los Angeles coast, she finds herself sinking into a complete state of paralysis. With no true friends and a troubled relationship with her mother, the failed young actress attempts to seek solace in the best way she knows: by losing herself in the lives of strangers. When, by chance, Echo meets a dominatrix called Orly, it finally feels like she might have found someone who will be nurturing and treasure her for who she is. But Orly's fifty-something houseboy, Piggy, isn't quite ready to let someone else share the intimate relationship he's worked so hard to form with his mistress.

Permission is a love story about people who are sick with dreams and expectations and turn to the erotic for comfort and cure. As they stumble through the landscape of desire, they are in a desperate search for the answer to that sacred question: how do I want to be loved?

About the Author

Saskia Vogel is from Los Angeles and lives in Berlin, where she works as a writer and Swedish-to-English literary translator. She has written on power and sexuality for publications such as Paris Review Daily, The White Review, Sight and Sound, and The Offing. Previously, she worked as Granta magazine's publicist and as an editor at the AVN Media Network, where she reported on pornography and adult pleasure products.