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, now friend; and Hannah, 'almost universally regarded as nice and smart, or smart and nice,' who is lively, fun, and holds her own in conversation with his friends. In this 21st-century literary world, wit and conversation are not at all dead. Is romance? Novelist Adelle Waldman plunges into the psyche of a modern man - who thinks of himself as beyond superficial judgment, yet constantly struggles with his own 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.