Summary

For fans of Helen Fielding s Bridget Jones s Diary and Allison Pearson s I Don t Know How She Does It comes an irresistible novel of a woman losing herself . . . and finding herself again . . . in the middle of her life.
Maybe it was those extra five pounds I d gained.Maybe it was because I was about to turn the same age my mother was when I lost her.Maybe it was because after almost twenty years of marriage my husband and I seemed to be running out of things to say to each other.
But when the anonymous online study called Marriage in the 21st Century showed up in my inbox, I had no idea how profoundly it would change my life. It wasn t long before I was assigned both a pseudonym (Wife 22) and a caseworker (Researcher 101).
And, just like that, I found myself answering questions.
7. Sometimes I tell him he s snoring when he s not snoring so he ll sleep in the guest room and I can have the bed all to myself.
61. Chet Baker on the tape player. He was cutting peppers for the salad. I looked at those hands and thought, I am going to have this man s children.
67. To not want what you don t have. What you can t have. What you shouldn t have.
32. That if we weren t careful, it was possible to forget one another.
Before the study, my life was an endless blur of school lunches and doctor s appointments, family dinners, budgets, and trying to discern the fastest-moving line at the grocery store. I was Alice Buckle: spouse of William and mother to Zoe and Peter, drama teacher and Facebook chatter, downloader of memories and Googler of solutions.
But these days, I m also Wife 22. And somehow, my anonymous correspondence with Researcher 101 has taken an unexpectedly personal turn. Soon, I ll have to make a decision one that will affect my family, my marriage, my whole life. But at the moment, I m too busy answering questions.
As it turns out, confession can be a very powerful aphrodisiac.

From the Hardcover edition. "