A progressive New York couple with an autistic son move to a bucolic Hudson Valley exurb and immerse themselves in the local community only to have their bond tested by an invitation to become an open-marriage couple. A progressive New York couple with an autistic son move to a bucolic Hudson Valley exurb and immerse themselves in the local community only to have their bond tested by an invitation to become an open-marriage couple. By a senior writer for Murphy Brown and the author of The Big Love. 50,000 first printing. A hilarious and emotionally charged novel about a couple who embark on an open marriage-what could possibly go wrong? Lucy and Owen, ambitious, thoroughly-therapized New Yorkers, have taken the plunge, trading in their crazy life in a cramped apartment for Beekman, a bucolic Hudson Valley exurb. Theyve got a two hundred year-old house, an autistic son obsessed with the Titanic, and 17 chickens, at last count. Its the kind of paradise where stay-at-home moms team up to cook the schools hot lunch, dads grill grass-fed burgers, and, as Lucy observes, chopping kale has become a certain kind of American housewifes version of chopping wood.When friends at a wine-soaked dinner party reveal theyve made their marriage open, sensible Lucy balks. Theres a part of her, though-the part that worries shes become too comfortable being invisible-thats intrigued. Why not try a short marital experiment? Six months, clear ground rules, zero questions asked. When an affair with a man in the city begins to seem more enticing than the happily-ever-after shes known for the past nine years, Lucy must decide what truly makes her happy-real life, or the experiment?
