But the wonder of The Adulterants is how we feel ourselves rooting for Ray even as we acknowledge that he deserves everything he gets. Throughout a series of escalating catastrophes, our deadpan antihero keeps up a merciless mental commentary on the foibles and failings of those around him, and the vicissitudes of modern urban life: internet trolls, buy-to-let landlords, open marriages, and the threat posed by more sensitive men. The Adulterants would be a coming-of-age story if its protagonist could only forget that he is thirty-three years old.

Not until the summer of 2011, when discontent is rising on the streets and within his marriage. He has never been caught up in a riot, nor arrested, nor tagged by the state, nor become an international hate-figure. Nowadays nobody minds about adultery all that much, which is probably why the heroes of Joe Dunthorne’s new book, The Adulterants, cheat on one another with such abandon.Ray, the hero, starts. He has never committed adultery with his actual body. The bravura opening scene initiates an extended riff on the title. He is a man who has never been punched above the neck. At the start of Welsh writer Joe Dunthorne’s third novel, Ray attends a house party while Garthene works the night shift. Ray Morris is a tech journalist with a forgettable face, a tiresome manner, a small but dedicated group of friends, and a wife, Garthene, who is pregnant. One for the Trouble: Book Slam Annual Vol. We have new and used copies available, in 3 editions - starting at 3.32. For readers of Roddy Doyle, Nick Hornby, and Mark Haddon, The Adulterants is a piercingly funny-and cringingly poignant-take on how hard it is to grow up and how hard it is when you don't. Buy The Adulterants by Joe Dunthorne online at Alibris.