Adultery (novel)

Adultery is a novel by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. It is the sixteenth major book by Coelho, and touches on the theme of adultery. Adultery was written in Coelho's native language, Portuguese. The Portuguese edition was released on April 10th, 2014. The (American) English edition is published by Knopf and it is scheduled along with the Spanish edition to be published on August 19th, 2014.

Plot

A woman around her thirties begins to question the routine and predictability of her days. In everybody’s eyes, she has a perfect life: a solid and stable marriage to a rich and loving husband, sweet and well-behaved children and a job as a journalist she can't complain about. However, she can no longer bear the necessary effort to fake happiness when all she feels in life is an enormous apathy, boredom and depression. All that changes when she encounters an ex-boyfriend from her adolescence. Jacob is now a successful politician and, during an interview, he ends up arousing something in her she hadn’t felt for a long time: passion. They begin an affair which leads to brutal, S/M sex that she finds very exciting. She will now do anything to conquer that impossible love, and will have to go down to the pit of human emotions to finally find her redemption.

Extracts

"Ah, but I haven’t introduced myself. Pleased to meet you, my name’s Linda. I’m thirty-one, five foot eight, 150 pounds and I wear the best clothes that money can buy (thanks to my husband’s limitless generosity). I arouse desire in men and envy in other women. And yet, every morning, when I open my eyes to this ideal world that everyone dreams of having but few achieve, I know the day will be a disaster." - Extract from Adultery ^[1]

Reviews

The book has hit Amazon's Best Sellers rank in Fiction category. ^[2] The novel has gathered excellent reviews since the publication in Brazil. ^[3][4]

References