Jacob is a man with an overwhelming attraction to female feet. The Baroness is a clothing designer and evangelical sadist. Roy is a wedding band singer entranced by his step daughter. Ron and Laura are simply in love - only Laura lost both her legs in a car accident, and Ron is beguiled by a beauty many would be blind to.

How do we deal with desire? Our own, and the desires of others? How do we comprehend desires that are extreme, or unacceptable? And how do those who have them, live with them?

In The Other Side of Desire Daniel Bergner takes us on a journey into human passion suffered, endured, and celebrated. Desire is a sometimes anarchic, sometimes ecstatic, sometimes destructive, sometimes redeeming, and always powerful force.Immersing himself in it through the people whose lives he follows and the scientists he spends time with who are trying to understand it, slowly he exposes and illuminates layers of our humanity.

Phillip Birch, Assistant Editor, on The Other Side of Desire :

'This book describes the lives of people whose sexual desires would be considered abnormal, and perhaps repulsive, by the majority in most modern societies. It is not sensationalist, as a less sensitive writer might be, but gives a balanced viewpoint, considering the moral, physical and emotional consequences of each desire.

The author writes with scientific curiosity and an eye for human tragedy about the foot fetishist who opts for chemical castration rather than tell his wife of a decade what would really arouse him, the man who finds himself trying to seduce his stepdaughter of twelve via instant messenging, the dominatrix who supervises a human spit-roasting (literally, a naked man rotated on a pole above a fire, not close enough to be burnt to death) but ‘loves’ her slaves, and the ad-man whose working life is dedicated to finding beautiful women who will sell clothes and cosmetic products but who in his private life lusts after women with no legs. These stories force you to rethink your notions of what sexual perversion really is.'