Love doesn’t have to be either/or, and this breadth of understanding distinguishes Light Years from other novels about affairs. Salter details the dissolution of their marriage while insisting that love still undergirds all – despite their infidelities, the Berlands love one another. Nedra and Viri Berland have what looks like the perfect marriage and family, yet in private their relationship is imploding. Salter is known as a virtuoso writer on illicit sex and infidelity. Not just one of the best novels about marriage and infidelity but one of the best novels ever, period. I’ve also included a poetry collection and a short story, because I think the compression of these forms is suited to the intensity of the subject matter. With these classics taken as read, I’ve listed only contemporary works, all published in my lifetime. But these works are always included on lists like this.

When I initially drafted this list, I began with the obvious suspects: Anna Karenina, Lady With the Pet Dog, Madame Bovary and The End of the Affair.

Further, women are bravely speaking out against male abuses of power and sexual coercion in the workplace – but what about sexual coercion and abuse within a marriage? Or within the context of religion, where traditional gender roles and prohibitions against extramarital sex might make it difficult to speak up? Perhaps my protagonist Maggie’s predicament – to stay or not to stay in the marriage – will serve as a platform for discussion.

Adultery book