Seduction Theory: A Novel

ISBN: 0316584517

Author: Adrian, Emily

Condition: New

This tour de force is a campus novel, a love story, a coming-of-age narrative, a satire, a performance piece, an M.F.A. exposé, a trove of literary references and a primer on writing. -The New York Times Book ReviewWhen two married professors tiptoe toward infidelity, their transgressions are brought to light in a graduate students searing thesis project.Simone is the star of Edwards Universitys creative writing department: renowned Woolf scholar, grief memoirist, and campus sex icon. Her less glamorous and ostensibly devoted husband, Ethan, is a forgotten novelist and lecturer in the same department. According to Simone and Ethan, and everyone on campus, their marriage is perfect. That is, until Ethan sleeps with the department administrative assistant, Abigail, and the couples faith in their flawless relationship is rattled.Simone, meanwhile, has secrets of her own. While Ethans away for the summer, she grows inordinately close with her advisee, graduate student Roberta Robbie Green. In Robbie, Simone finds a new running partner, confidante, and disciple-or so she believes. Behind Simones back, Robbie fictionalizes her mentors marriage in a breathtakingly invasive MFA thesis. Determined to tell her version of the story, Robbie paints a revealing portrait of Simone, Ethan, Abigail, and even herself, scratching at the very surface of what may-or may not-be the truth.Simultaneously provocative and tender, Seduction Theory exposes the intoxicating nature of power and attraction, and is a masterful demonstration of how love and betrayal can coexist.