Bonnie Friedman

Bonnie Friedman is the author of the best-selling Writing Past Dark: Envy, Fear, Distraction, and Other Dilemmas in the Writer’s Life and the memoir The Thief of Happiness: The Story of an Extraordinary Psychotherapy. Her essays have appeared in The Best Buddhist Writing, The Best Writing on Writing, The Best American Movie Writing, and The Best Spiritual Writing. She has received a fellowship from the Institute for the Advancement of the Arts at the University of North Texas, a Pushcart Prize special mention, and a Notable Essay mention in The Best American Essays. Her new book, Surrendering Oz: A Life in Essays, is forthcoming in November 2014. Read more about her at bonniefriedman.com.

Devil Doll

Two young Americans meet en route to studying in Spain and forge an unusually close friendship. Once back in the United States, one of the women, who is married, invites the younger to come live with her and her husband. Over time a ménage à trois develops. But that isn’t what causes the ultimate rift in the friendship. Something deeper and more insidious had been at work from the very beginning. In this exploration of what underlies certain powerful friendships, the author examines the unacknowledged factors that sometimes attract us to one another—but can also make the relationship go painfully awry.