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Ballantine Books
June 2012
On Sale: May 29, 2012
400 pages
ISBN: 034552795X
EAN: 9780345527950
Kindle: B005OCYRLC
Hardcover / e-Book
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Paperback (February 2013)
Women's Fiction Contemporary
For fans of Helen Fieldingβs Bridget Jonesβs Diary and Allison Pearsonβs I Donβt Know How She Does It comes an irresistible novel of a woman losing herself . . . and finding herself again . . . in the middle of her life.
Maybe it was those extra five pounds Iβd gained. Maybe it was because I was about to turn the same age my mother was when I lost her. Maybe it was because after almost twenty years of marriage my husband and I seemed to be running out of things to say to each other.
But when the anonymous online study called βMarriage in the 21st Centuryβ showed up in my inbox, I had no idea how profoundly it would change my life. It wasnβt long before I was assigned both a pseudonym (Wife 22) and a caseworker (Researcher 101).
And, just like that, I found myself answering questions.
7. Sometimes I tell him heβs snoring when heβs not snoring so heβll sleep in the guest room and I can have the bed all to myself.
61. Chet Baker on the tape player. He was cutting peppers for the salad. I looked at those hands and thought, I am going to have this manβs children.
67. To not want what you donβt have. What you canβt have. What you shouldnβt have.
32. That if we werenβt careful, it was possible to forget one another.
Before the study, my life was an endless blur of school lunches and doctorβs appointments, family dinners, budgets, and trying to discern the fastest-moving line at the grocery store. I was Alice Buckle: spouse of William and mother to Zoe and Peter, drama teacher and Facebook chatter, downloader of memories and Googler of solutions.
But these days, Iβm also Wife 22. And somehow, my anonymous correspondence with Researcher 101 has taken an unexpectedly personal turn. Soon, Iβll have to make a decisionβone that will affect my family, my marriage, my whole life. But at the moment, Iβm too busy answering questions.
As it turns out, confession can be a very powerful aphrodisiac
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