Coming Clean

Sue Margolis's "wickedly funny”* novels have broken new ground in the fiction of love and marriage. Now she tells the story of a woman trying to iron out the problems in her life....

Eleven years ago, Sophie and Greg couldn't get enough of each other. A pair of full-time jobs and two kids later, they're in therapy asking themselves where all the sexy times went. Sophie thinks she knows: They're buried under Greg's mess. And even though her slob of a husband tries to make up for his shortcomings by cooking the occasional meal, Sophie is left to clean umpteen dirty dishes.

The last straw is when Greg uses some inheritance money to buy a World War II Sherman tank, which starts World War III in their marriage.

Sophie doesn't so much surrender as retreat—right out of the relationship. While Greg almost immediately shacks up with someone else, Sophie finds herself facing even more uncertainty due to a job reorganization. And even though she begins to lose her heart to a high school crush, Sophie starts to realize that a shiny new relationship doesn't always offer the softest place to fall...and she may find self-acceptance and love in the place she least expects it.

*People