How We Desire is an enthralling essay about gender, sexuality and love by one of Germany's most admired writers. It's about growing up, and discovering the contours of desire and difference, about understanding that we sometimes 'slip into norms the way we slip into clothes, putting them on because they're laid out ready for us.' In telling her own story, Emcke draws back the veil on how we experience desire, no matter what our sexual orientation. And she examines how prejudice against homosexuality has survived its decriminalisation in the west. This marvellous book pays homage to the radical magic and liberating tenderness of desire itself.