Sex Is Forbidden by Tim Parks

A young woman serving at a silent Buddhist meditation retreat, where sex and speech are forbidden, secretly reads a participant’s candid diary and is drawn into his grievances and desires. Her own messy history of love, guilt, and self-doubt collides with the center’s strict ideals, exposing the comic hypocrisies and raw longings beneath spiritual discipline and pushing her toward a risky, self-revealing reckoning.

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