THE MONOGAMY PRIZE

“Druckerman’s voice is intelligent, charming, witty, and downright funny. It’s like hanging out with a friend over a long, boozy lunch where everyone ends up revealing a little more than they thought they would, but it’s so much fun you can’t wait for the next date.”
—Molly Ringwald, actor and author

“Druckerman is incapable of writing an unfunny sentence. But like all the best humor, this has a thoughtful edge as she navigates her multicultural midlife crisis past the sultry sirens of extra marital sex—and tennis.”
—Peter Godwin, author of Exit Wounds

On the eve of her fiftieth birthday, Pamela Druckerman’s life has stalled. She was in her early thirties when she moved to Paris, married a dashing fellow journalist, and became a celebrated author. Yet now, it’s her husband who churns out a book a year and wears earplugs around the house. Her adolescent children are more French than American, and her Parisian neighbors haven’t gotten any more welcoming. Once a prolific writer, she has slipped in status to her family’s head of purchasing and quality control.

Tired of feeling unappreciated, Druckerman decides to try on the famously flexible French approach to monogamy (“What is fidelity, really? Isn’t it to be true to yourself?”). What ensues is more than she ever expected. Is this radical self-care or relationship suicide? Have honesty-obsessed Americans been approaching coupledom all wrong? Can an American in Paris ever truly become French?

The Monogamy Prize is a disarmingly intimate and deeply funny account of one woman’s passage and a bold exploration of the rules of modern marriage.

“The Monogamy Prize is a celebration of aging and self-discovery and even of matrimony (if you squint your eyes). I guarantee it will make you laugh and make you think and, quite possibly, cheat on your spouse. It’s Pamela Druckerman’s most intimate book yet and also just so much fun to read.”
—Nathan Englander, author of For the Relief of Unbearable Urges

“Pamela Druckerman has topped herself with this one! She’s always been very good at synthesizing gravity and levity, with a sharp sense of the power of humor to bear us through all of life’s strange twists and disappointments. Here that talent is sharpened, and cutting, like never before. Now it’s as if one of the more colorful characters of Balzac’s The Human Comedy has come alive, but as a character endowed with the one power that great Parisian chronicler always held back from his own creations: deep and real self-knowledge.”
—Justin Smith-Ruiu, professor of history and philosophy of science, Université Paris Cité, and author of On Drugs

“God I love this book so much. I burst out laughing at least once a page. The Monogamy Prize is the most delightful, hilarious, sweetly profound book I have read in years. I loved absolutely every word, paragraph, and chapter. Open it right now and read the first sentence, but make sure you have a little time on your hands because you’re not going to put it down until you’re done.”
—Ayelet Waldman, author of A Perfect Hand