All Fours

The New York Times bestselling author of The First Bad Man returns with an irreverently sexy, tender, hilarious and literary novel about a woman upending her life

A semi-famous artist turns forty-five and gives herself a gift - a cross-country road trip from LA to New York, without her husband and child. But thirty minutes after setting off, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel - and embarks on the journey of a lifetime.

Review

"It's very funny, quite dirty, and deeply profound, with a fragile magic that comes from entering an uncensored inner world. There is the added thrill as well, of July suggesting that midlife, and menopause in particular, might be kind of . . . hot" ― Observer

"Rage, grief, lust, sadness, selfishness; this stunning book and July's nameless heroine have it all. I cannot wait to read it all over again" -- GILLIAN ANDERSON

"A life-changer for me. I thought I was reading about middle age, then I thought I was reading about menopause, then motherhood, then sexuality, then monogamy, then marriage. And by the final page I realised I was reading about existence and death and I couldn't stop crying. Plus it's so funny and it's so horny. My favourite novel of this year" -- DOLLY ALDERTON

"A giddy, bold, mind-blowing tour de force by one of our most important literary writers. Funny, honest, rich with the energy of the mind, All Fours will jump-start your relation to language and cause you to think anew about the nature of desire" -- GEORGE SAUNDERS

"Transcendent . . . A book that emboldens you. To read it, is to feel gloriously, unashamedly alive" -- PANDORA SYKES

"One of the freshest, funniest, most urgent voices I've read in a long time . . . Authentic and willingly honest. I couldn't put the book down. What a delight" -- HUGH JACKMAN

"Wild and outrageous, provocative and entirely unpredictable" -- DAVID NICHOLLS

"Essential . . . A book of vast scope, taking in men and women, the mind and the body, and society and solitude" ― Guardian

"July doesn't just tap into the zeitgeist; she helps shape it. Her prose is startlingly original yet immediately familiar, like meeting a stranger who reminds you of yourself. How did she create something so original and yet so relatable? . . . Unflinching and insistent - a defiance against erasure" -- MOLLY RINGWALD

"July comes into her own [and] brings a new perspective . . . A menopause novel that's never boring" ― Sunday Times

About the Author

Miranda July is a writer, filmmaker and artist. Her debut novel, The First Bad Man, was an instant New York Times bestseller, and her collection of stories, No One Belongs Here More Than You, won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. Her writing has appeared in the Paris Review, Harper's and the New Yorker. July lives in Los Angeles.