The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.: A Novel by Adelle Waldman

"He was not the kind of guy who disappeared after sleeping with a woman and certainly not after the condom broke. On the contrary: Nathaniel Piven was a product of a postfeminist 1980s childhood and politically correct, 1990s college education. He had learned all about male privilege. Moreover, he was in possession of a functional and frankly rather clamorous conscience."

Nate Piven is a rising star in Brooklyn's literary scene. After several lean and striving years, he has his pick of both magazine assignments and women: Juliet, the hotshot business reporter; Elisa, his gorgeous ex-girlfriend; and Hannah, "almost universally regarded as nice and smart, or smart and nice," who is fun and holds her own in conversation with his friends.

In Nate's world, wit and conversation are not at all dead. But is romance? Novelist Waldman plunges into the psyche of a modern man who thinks of himself as beyond superficial judgment yet struggles with status anxiety; who is drawn to women yet has a habit of letting them down. With tough-minded intelligence and wry good humor The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. is an absorbing tale of one young man's search for happiness and an inside look at how he really thinks about women, sex, and love.

• Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR