Geography Of An Adultery: A Novel

(Paperback)

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Dissecting a midlife affair, this perceptive, slyly comical debut explores how the spaces that limit our movements can be more exciting than the person we think we want. Ema and Paul are lovers. Like so many others before them, they met through work. Both are married with children, and they arrange hurried meetings away from prying eyes. Paul's car, a corner of Ema's house, a hotel room...But their relationship soon suffers from this too-restricted sphere, and Ema decides to put them both in danger, at the risk of losing everything. Cleverly attaching itself to the locations where passion plays out-whether domestic or professional, safe or transgressive-Geography of an Adultery casts a radical eye on anticipation and desire. With her deceptively cool, clinically precise style, Agn s Riva unravels the inner workings of a private life.

Reviews

Intriguingly obliquea beguiling portrayal of desire. Publishers Weekly

The grounded emotional intelligence on display is well worth the readers investment. Booklist

A fresh perspective [on affairs]wholly originalRivas emphasis on place over character makes this debut notable. Necessary Fiction

The focus of Agns Rivas compelling novel, Geography of an Adultery, is not on an affair but on the impact of place. Who we are is defined by where we are. Through the eyes of Ema, the reader feels the tension between passion and pulling back, between desire and the fear of being caught. Ultimately, the terrain explored is of a womans needs, a couples clandestine fantasies, and the shifting boundaries within relationships. Janet Skeslien Charles, author of The Paris Library

Agns Riva masterfully charts the dangerous contours of an illicit affair in this taut, thrilling novel. Geography of an Adultery examines intimacy and performance, solitude and freedom, and the porosity between self, space, and other. Sana Lemoine, author of The Margot Affair

Reminiscent of Annie Ernaux,Agns Rivascool, crisply written debut charts the course of an affair with prose so perfectly precise and unyielding, you know you are in the hands of an exceptionally talented draftswoman. Deft and unexpectedly witty, Geography of an Adultery operates like a blueprint, mapping the boundaries of a midlife affairthe ache of obsessive love, the headiness of clandestine encountersexploring the shifting balance of power between two lovers, from car seat trysts to hotel bathrooms. Meticulously paced, this wry exploration of desire (and its limits) has moments of such brilliant bathos I laughed out loud. Ellie Eaton, author of The Divines

With precision and economy, Agns Riva stirs up an uneasy and affectingnovel that lives in the tension between constraint and abandon. As it depicts the quotidian, often ridiculous territory of an affair, Geography of an Adultery ingeniously maps one womans inner world. Deborah Shapiro, author of The Summer Demands and The Sun in Your Eyes

A powerful, gorgeous first novel. Diacritik

[Rivas prose] borrows from the nouveau roman as well as forensic pathologyremarkable. LObs

Author Bio

Agn s Riva lives in the suburbs of Paris, where she draws inspiration from its urban landscape. She is the author of the short story "New Life," which was published in the anniversary issue of the New French Review. Her debut novel, Geography of an Adultery, was a finalist for the Goncourt First Novel Prize and RTL-Lire Grand Prix. John Cullen was the translator of many books from Spanish, French, German, and Italian, including Siegfried Lenz's The Turncoat, Juli Zeh's Empty Hearts, Patrick Modiano's Villa Triste, Kamel Daoud's The Meursault Investigation, and Philippe Claudel's Brodeck.