The Ten Year Affair
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Canongate Books
Published:15th Jan '26
Should be back in stock very soon

MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST, STYLIST, NEW STATESMAN, BUSTLE, LITHUB, W MAGAZINE AND OUR CULTURE
DAKOTA JOHNSON BOOK CLUB PICK
THE SHIFT BY SAM BAKER BOOK CLUB PICK
Two parents. Happily married. Just not to each other.
When Cora meets Sam at a baby group in their small town, the chemistry between them is instant and undeniable. But both are happily married, and neither is the type to cheat. So as their lives intertwine and the romantic tension between them heightens, Cora turns to her imagination: in her head, she and Sam pursue their feelings; in reality, they resist.
Yet as the fantasy affair grows ever more intoxicating, it can't help but cast Cora's everyday life - the mushroom problem in the bathroom, her daughter's new fascination with the afterlife, her husband's obsession with podcasts about the history of rope - in a new light. And when the boundaries grow increasingly blurred, she must decide what truly matters.
Razor-sharp, exhilaratingly honest and salted with an irresistible acerbic wit, The Ten Year Affair explores family life, fidelity and the roads not taken, and ultimately asks: do we really want our fantasies to come true?
'Somers's wit is as cool, caustic and dry as liquid nitrogen' TONY TULATHIMUTTE
'Hilarious' BRANDON TAYLOR
'Compulsively readable' JULIA MAY JONAS
I devoured it. It was completely exhilarating! The everyday, but glittering so darkly. I laughed all the time. I reread most of the pages. I wished I'd written it -- CATHERINE NEWMAN
Sociologically acute and slyly entertaining . . . Somers's crisp writing makes for a humane, frequently funny and very readable novel that captures something not just about how we live now, but about choices, compromises, sacrifice, being a parent, getting older * * New York Times Book Review * *
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
The midlife adultery story our entire generation deserves . . . I loved this razor-sharp, hilarious, finely observed novel, written with such withering exactitude. It is absolutely aware of itself, spare and brimming with subtext * * Guardian * *
Somers explores ideas of monogamy, motherhood and modern living in the vein of Miranda July's All Fours or Julia May Jonas's Vladimir * * New York Times * *
So brilliantly poised and acutely observed . . . Somers captures so many uncomfortable truths about modern middle-class marriage . . . One of the only novels I've ever read about infidelity that really gives fantasy its due. It's a very poignant story about disappointment and disillusionment, but there's nothing dreary about Somers' prose . . . The beauty of this book lies in the memorable details -- JOHANNA THOMAS-CORR, chief literary critic for The Times and Sunday Times
Somers cleverly laces big existential questions into the story...and offers us generous lashings of wry humour too * * Times * *
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, author of FILTHY ANIMALS
Absolutely hilarious, real and brilliant -- JENNY COLGAN
The Ten Year Affair is a cross between the mid-century infidelity fiction of John Updike, Richard Yates and John Cheever, which explored middle-class ennui, and the 1980s domestic novels of Laurie Colwin . . . Under the guise of comedy, it poses potent societal questions about modern marriage and gender roles * * Financial Times * *
ISBN: 9781837264568
Dimensions: 220mm x 141mm x 26mm
Weight: 411g
304 pages
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