How We Desire

Translated by Imogen Taylor

What if, instead of discovering our sexuality only once, during puberty, we discover it again later—and then again, after that? What if our sexuality reinvents itself every time our desire shifts, every time the object of our desire changes? What if the nature of our desire is constantly changing—growing deeper, lighter, wilder, more reckless, more tender, more selfish, more devoted, more radical?

How We Desire is an enthralling essay about gender, sexuality and love by one of Germany’s most admired writers. It’s about growing up, and discovering the contours of desire and difference, about understanding that we sometimes ‘slip into norms the way we slip into clothes, putting them on because they’re laid out ready for us’.

In telling her own story, Emcke draws back the veil on how we experience desire, no matter what our sexual orientation. And she examines how prejudice against homosexuality has survived its decriminalisation in the west.

This marvellous book pays homage to the radical magic and liberating tenderness of desire itself.

Traducere de Imogen Taylor Ce se intampla daca, in loc sa ne descoperim sexualitatea o singura data, in timpul pubertatii, o descoperim din nou mai tarziu - si apoi din nou, dupa aceea? Ce se intampla daca sexualitatea noastra se reinventeaza de fiecare data cand dorinta noastra se schimba, de fiecare data cand obiectul dorintei noastre se schimba?