Ben Seidel wasn't sure how serious they were when he and his wife, Shira, discussed having an open marriage. But when Shira announces that she is going on a date with Liz, any ambiguity evaporates. Suddenly, every day is new terrain for Ben, navigating between keeping things together with Shira and exploring new partners. And when one of those new partners begins to matter to him more than he ever anticipated, he discovers that the complexities of this new life are only just beginning. Bracingly honest, refreshingly sexy, and deeply empathetic, I Am My Beloveds is the work of a superior storyteller, making real a lifestyle that might be as close as your own bedroom door.

Cybill Berenson, mother of three, newly divorced at age 42, is sure the most passionate years of her life are behind her. Then she meets Mel, a sexual shaman who takes her to new heights-and new depths. After their liaison ends, she feels a new openness to pleasure, and she sees that the conventional life is not for her. She falls in love with Quinn, a much younger man; she travels to the Burning Man festival on her own; she edits a book called Adultery Now (which outrages her children); she takes lovers while in her fifties and sixties. Cybill never stops seeking the thrill of deep connection to another human being. When a lover calls her his soul-mate, Cybill realizes "it was for moments like this, and not sex, that she had love affairs." John Updike described Hiller's story collection, Skin, as "Good, brave and joyful fiction." The same can be said about Cybill Unbound-a novel like Fear of Flying for those over forty. "Uh-oh! Cybill's witty rationalizations for her bold adventures are seeming all too rational to me." -Kathleen Rockwell Lawrence, author of The Last Room in Manhattan