Seduction Theory

When two married professors tiptoe toward infidelity, their transgressions are brought to light in a graduate student’s searing thesis project.

Simone is the star of Edwards University’s 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 couple’s faith in their flawless relationship is rattled.

Simone, meanwhile, has secrets of her own. While Ethan’s 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 Simone’s back, Robbie fictionalizes her mentor’s 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

• “Adrian’s clear sighted, blistering prose always leaves me out of breath, nervously laughing and turning the page, excited and a little scared by what she's going to say next. Seduction Theory nails the campus satire with savagery and grace, and it’s clear that Adrian is a major talent."
  Rufi Thorpe, author of The Knockout Queen and Margo's Got Money Troubles
• "The most fun I have had with a novel in years. Seduction Theory breathes new and mesmerizing life into the campus novel and the marriage plot to produce a book so enjoyable that reading it felt almost decadent."
  Megan Nolan, author of Acts of Desperation and Ordinary Human Failings
• "Seduction Theory is a deliriously smart, funny, sexy, page-turner in which Emily Adrian upcycles the postmodern love triangle plot into a novel of ideas. Her wayward academics raise provocative questions about truth, desire, power, obsession, and what it really means to live a shared life. There are welcome resonances with novels such as Andrew Martin’s Early Work and Christine Smallwood’s The Life of the Mind, with enough Nabokov in the mix to keep you on your toes to the last page, at which point you’ll likely do what I did: let out a shocked and gleeful scream."
  Justin Taylor, author of Reboot
• "With sparkling wit and striking formal ingenuity, Emily Adrian's Seduction Theory gives vibrant new life to the marriage-in-crisis novel. I was completely hooked from the first page, and couldn't sleep until I finished it."
  Andrew Martin, author of Early Work
• "A ferociously clever, funny and compulsive read. Seduction Theory is an absolute gift of a novel, playing with form and expectation in the most exhilarating ways. It's by far and away my favorite book of the year - and probably next year, too."
  Nathan Filer, author of The Shock of the Fall
• "So emotionally honest, clever, and sexy, I really enjoyed Seduction Theory." 
  Charlotte Mendelson, author of Wife and The Exhibitionist
• “Emily Adrian's Seduction Theory is so classy, so cool and so funny. You'll pick it up and find yourself five hours later putting it down finished. It's completely insightful about midlife and marriage, and propulsive too.”
  Naomi Wood, author of Mrs. Hemingway
• "If you want your beach candy with a side of brain food, Adrian's incisively original campus drama is the perfect bite-size feast. It’s juicy, yes, but also a sharp, aching interrogation of where we draw the line of betrayal and the stories we tell about our relationships and ourselves."
  Charley Burlock, Oprah Daily
• "A book that is actually just as fun as it sounds... A little bit postmodern, a little bit sexy, and quite funny indeed, you will feel both smarter and more indulgent than usual while you're reading it." 
  Emily Temple, Lit Hub
• “[A] terrifically inventive matryoshka doll of a novel….It’s a tender portrait of an enviable marriage balanced by a delightfully smarmy tone with laugh-out-loud passages of humor….A masterful exploration on the varieties of truth, and the stories we craft about ourselves.”
  Kirkus, starred review
• “Adrian poses intriguing questions about the nature of betrayal, the blurry ethics of professor-student intimacy, and the right to tell another person’s story.”
  Publishers Weekly