Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. Today we're going to talk about sex,

not explicitly or anything, but actually now that I think about it, the books we're going to talk

about today are less about the act of sex and more about how our sex lives map on to our

everyday lives, our jobs, our bills, our friends, and

neighbors. Up ahead, a sex survey gets sent around a small Midwestern town. But first, Aaron Summers's

novel, The Ten Year Affair, is a bit of a throwback to a certain style of literary domestic

dramas that don't seem to be super in vogue these days.

Think work by John Cheever or Richard Yates.

But Summers says what makes middle class malaise different for this generation is that,

well, that house with a white picket fence isn't as attainable anymore.

And that does affect your sex life.

My conversation with Aaron Summers after the break.

To all the married folks listening, let me ask you a question.

You ever have a crush on someone, not your partner?

Maybe someone at work or in your friend group.

Nothing too serious.

But then, do you ever think about what would happen if?

Or how would it go if you grazed their hand or kissed or found yourselves in a hotel room

together?

In the new novel, The Ten Year Affair, our protagonist, Cora, thinks about it a lot, so much

so that it blurs a line between what's real

and what's just fantasy. Or maybe fantasies are real. Either way, author Aaron Summers,

...