‘The best book about adultery since Madame Bovary.’ —Tony Tulathimutte, author of Rejection
A New Yorker, NPR, ELLE, and Esquire Best Book of the Year
A hilariously acerbic sliding doors novel about a chance meeting between two young parents, both happily married (just not to each other) that sparks a will-they-won’t-they romance.
When Cora meets Sam at a baby group in their small town, the chemistry between them is undeniable. Both are happily married young parents with two kids, and neither sees themselves as the type to engage in an affair. Yet their connection grows stronger, and as their lives continue to intertwine, the romantic tension between them becomes all-consuming—until their worlds unravel into two parallel timelines. In one, they pursue their feelings. In the other, they resist.
As reality splits, the everyday details of Cora’s life—her depressing marketing job, her daughter’s new fascination with the afterlife, her husband’s obsession with podcasts about the history of rope—gain fresh perspective. The intersecting and diverging timelines blur the boundaries of reality and fantasy, questioning what might have been and what truly matters.
The Ten Year Affair is a witty, emotionally-charged exploration of marriage, family life, and the roads not taken, that ultimately asks: do we really want our fantasies to come true?
Genre: General Fiction
A New Yorker, NPR, ELLE, and Esquire Best Book of the Year
A hilariously acerbic sliding doors novel about a chance meeting between two young parents, both happily married (just not to each other) that sparks a will-they-won’t-they romance.
When Cora meets Sam at a baby group in their small town, the chemistry between them is undeniable. Both are happily married young parents with two kids, and neither sees themselves as the type to engage in an affair. Yet their connection grows stronger, and as their lives continue to intertwine, the romantic tension between them becomes all-consuming—until their worlds unravel into two parallel timelines. In one, they pursue their feelings. In the other, they resist.
As reality splits, the everyday details of Cora’s life—her depressing marketing job, her daughter’s new fascination with the afterlife, her husband’s obsession with podcasts about the history of rope—gain fresh perspective. The intersecting and diverging timelines blur the boundaries of reality and fantasy, questioning what might have been and what truly matters.
The Ten Year Affair is a witty, emotionally-charged exploration of marriage, family life, and the roads not taken, that ultimately asks: do we really want our fantasies to come true?
Genre: General Fiction
Praise for this book
"A compulsively readable, surprising, and wholly satisfying story of the way we long, now. Told with inexhaustible wit, Somers's novel is packed full of observations and flights of imagination so perfect in their particulars that their accumulation becomes luminous." - Julia May Jonas
"Funny, chic and energetic, The Ten Year Affair sizzles with wit. One of the most entertaining novels on marriage I've ever read." - Jenny Mustard
"Smart, sharp and incredibly funny . . . Explores the slippery complicated space of fidelity, parenthood and marriage . . . Thrilling . . . I loved this book for its deftness, humour and its remarkable acuity." - Lynn Steger Strong
"The Ten Year Affair is a hilarious and acutely observed account of early middle life. Somers writes with warmth, wit, and shimmering insight about the failings and strivings of decent people who wake up and find that life isn't quite working out. No other writer at work today is as alert to the comedy of everyday life and to the extraordinary realms of feeling that lie behind that comedy. I never wanted this novel to end. I loved every moment. Somers has written a classic of our era" - Brandon Taylor
"The Ten Year Affair isn't just the best book about adultery since Madame Bovary; it's also a funny and deeply true novel about the role of the imagination in human existence, those banal long term daydreams that compete with your life while helping you cope with it. Erin Somers's wit is as cool, caustic and dry as liquid nitrogen, and her dangerous talent is on full display in this excellent book." - Tony Tulathimutte
"Funny, chic and energetic, The Ten Year Affair sizzles with wit. One of the most entertaining novels on marriage I've ever read." - Jenny Mustard
"Smart, sharp and incredibly funny . . . Explores the slippery complicated space of fidelity, parenthood and marriage . . . Thrilling . . . I loved this book for its deftness, humour and its remarkable acuity." - Lynn Steger Strong
"The Ten Year Affair is a hilarious and acutely observed account of early middle life. Somers writes with warmth, wit, and shimmering insight about the failings and strivings of decent people who wake up and find that life isn't quite working out. No other writer at work today is as alert to the comedy of everyday life and to the extraordinary realms of feeling that lie behind that comedy. I never wanted this novel to end. I loved every moment. Somers has written a classic of our era" - Brandon Taylor
"The Ten Year Affair isn't just the best book about adultery since Madame Bovary; it's also a funny and deeply true novel about the role of the imagination in human existence, those banal long term daydreams that compete with your life while helping you cope with it. Erin Somers's wit is as cool, caustic and dry as liquid nitrogen, and her dangerous talent is on full display in this excellent book." - Tony Tulathimutte
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